Description
As Jewelry Shopping Guide editors, we write about things that we love and we think you’ll like too. We often have affiliate partnerships, and may generate some revenue from these links at no cost to you.
Zircon is a little-known and often misunderstood stone. While not many people know of this gemstone today. zircon used to be highly valued and coveted throughout history for its natural sparkle and attractive features. It is a beautiful natural gemstone, comparable in many ways to diamonds.
Zircon is the oldest mineral found on earth so far, with some crystals found in Australia estimated to be over 4.4 billion years old!
Because of its similarities in appearance to diamonds, zircon was the first natural diamond simulation. It is the only natural gemstone that even comes close to imitating the appearance of a diamond. Unfortunately for zircon, many people confuse zircon with the cheaper, less valuable cubic zirconia, which has given it some bad rep. however, it is a beautiful gemstone in its own right.
If you’re intrigued by this misunderstood stone, keep reading as we cover everything you need to know about zircon.
What is zircon?
Zircon is a natural gemstone. It is composed of zircon silicate and is found in a number of regions around the world, including Sri Lanka, Burma, Cambodia, USA, South Africa and Australia. It has been used in jewelry for centuries and particularly as a diamond simulation.
The word zircon comes from the Persian word ‘zargun’ meaning ‘gold-colored’. However, you can find zircon in a range of colors, caused by various impurities that are present during the formation of the stone. Sometimes zircon can contain traces of uranium, and can be slightly radioactive. In such cases, the zircon undergoes stability treatments to enable them to be used in jewelry. However, don’t let this stop you from adding zircon to your jewelry collection because the mini scale levels of radioactivity found in zircon jewelry pose no health risks for humans.
Zircon has very high sparkle, luster, dispersion and refraction. In other words, it plays excellently with light, making it a brilliant and fiery stone. Zircon also exhibits rainbow flashes of color.
Because the stone has double refraction, it displays excellent fire and may give off the illusion of having double the number of facets that it actually has. This infringement, however, can also cause the zircon to appear fuzzy.
Evaluating zircon color
While the most popularly used zircon varieties include blue, pink, yellow and colorless, you can find this stone in almost every color.
Colorless zircon is the purest form of the mineral and high quality, diamond-like stones can be very rare. In fact, it is much rarer than diamonds but is considerably less valuable.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.