April 1, 2024
April Is for Diamonds
By Eloise Graham
Diamond is the birthstone
The gem diamond is the birthstone for April. Chemically speaking, it is merely a piece of carbon whose atoms are arranged in a diamond cubic. A big chunk of black coal is also chemically carbon but with a different structure to the atoms.
Russia mines most of the worlds diamonds, almost half of what is mined. Africa has many mines in operation. Dubai, India and Belgium are the most economical places to buy diamonds. The United States even has a diamond mine – only one. It is in Arkansas. Arkansas’s Crater of Diamond State Park is the only diamond-producing site in the world where the public can search for diamonds in the original volcanic source. The policy here is “finders keepers” meaning that the diamonds you find are yours to keep.
The trend seems to be going to “lab grown” diamonds. The lab seems to be more environmentally friendly than mining the land. Tiffany & Co. has gone to selling the lab produced gems for their jewelry.
The diamond (and all gemstones) is graded by the four C’s: carat, cut color and clarity. Carat is the weight of the stone. Cut is the shape and can vary to your liking. Marquise is an elongated cut. The emerald cut is square with beveled edges. The round cut is circular and has many facets to make the gem sparkle. Color has to do with the minerals that might be in the stone. These can range from yellow tint to a blue tone to a rose color. Clarity has to do with the impurities and blemishes that might be there, but these usually cannot be seen by the naked eye.
Diamond is the playground
All across the country the sounds of the ball diamond are heard! The shout “PLAY BALL.” The crack of the bat. The song “Take me out to the Ballgame.” These are all sounds of April. For many years, opening day for baseball had been in April. Since 2018 it has been in late March. Opening day for the MLB will be March 28, 2024. The fifteen games scheduled to play that day will feature six divisional contests and one Interleague game.
Here the Quad Cities River Bandits will open their season on April 5, 2024. There will be fireworks after the game! Iowa has another diamond of which to boast. The Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa. The game this year is June 20 and will feature the San Francisco Giants vs. the St. Louis Cardinals.
