Undiscovered Mystery of Pink Diamonds! (News of the day)

A pink diamond, which premably had once been possessed by Maria Antoinette, the last queen of France, was just sold for US$ 14 billion on an auction in New York. This was THREE TIMES its asking price!

In general, diamonds form under intense heat and pressure about 150-200 km underground, and the carbon atoms, which constitute diamonds, arrange themselves into a regular structure over BILLIONS of years.

A mystery that costs billions. Credit: Christie's

The colours of a diamond are usually due to impurities; for example, blue diamonds contain boron.

However, a pink diamond has NO IMPURITIES. Instead, its lattice crystal is distorted. Through the process of "plastic deformation", the high pressure underground twists and compresses the carbon layers, which changes how the stone reflects light (that we later see with our eyes).

Yet, there are still gaps in our understanding of the mechanism of how plastic deformation occurs and how precisely it leads to the pink colour. Currenty, scientists are studying this question by trying to replicate a pink diamond in a lab, but so far they have NOT BEEN ABLE TO able to create a stone with the same optical properties as the naturally-occuring one.

Resource:

https://phys.org/news/2025-06-pink-diamond-sold-us14-million.html