Also there is some truth to the phrase “Diamonds Are Forever.”  This phrase was invented by the DeBeers diamond jewelry companion in the eighties to help sell more stones.  Diamonds really are practically indestructible which is why the industrial type is often mined and then sold to be used as the very end tips for industrial drill bits.  They really are the hardest minerals in the world and the idea that they are indestructible has become a metaphor for the love that cannot be destroyed as well.

Diamonds rate at the very top on a hardness scale called the Moh scale. This is a measurement used by jewelers to rate how hard or soft any gemstone might be.  Diamonds are always a “ten.”   They are the hardest substance in the world and the standard by which softer stones are measured.

Diamonds are glamorous but they are also tough. Even the tiniest of stones can scratch most substances. This is why the old test of scratching glass  (like a mirror) to see if a diamond is real actually works.  A rhinestone or zircon stone will not make a mark at all but a real piece of ice will mar the mirror.

Instead of saying a “diamond is forever” the phrase should have been “a diamond takes forever” as it each diamond rock is formed from carbon that crystallizes hundreds of miles below in the furnace of the earth. These stones are eventually brought to the surface of the earth in veins of magma that cool and harden. These veins of magma are called kimberlite. Kimberlite veins, which are located largely in Brazil, Africa and also Canada are studded with diamonds.  The actual process of the diamonds being formed in the bowels of the earth, compressed from carbon and then brought up to a point deep enough where they can actually be mined takes millions of years.

White diamonds have traditionally been the most prized of jewels but lately fancy diamonds like yellow diamonds called Cape diamonds that are only found in strains of kimberlite in South Africa are becoming the standard for top quality.  This was the type of diamond featured in the movie Blood Diamond with Leonardo DiCaprio.

However, it is the white diamond in the three pronged Tiffany setting that is perched above the band of the ring that has become primarily identified with the phrase “a diamond is forever.”  This is where the symbolism for love lasting an eternity comes from as each piece of “ice” almost takes an eternity to be created far below in the earth’s crusts.