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“Mother Nature cooks in a dirty kitchen,” says Nicole Ahline, supervisor for colored stones at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), in the latest episode of Rapaport’s GemTalks series.
The expression, popular in the gemology world, describes how trace elements and other forces can leave markers on gemstones that help identify where they came from.
Sri Lankan blue sapphires, for example, have a metamorphic origin, meaning they formed when continents collided and existing rocks recrystallized. Australian specimens are magmatic – coming from molten rock deep in the earth. Clues of these backstories are there in the stones we see today.
Ahline, in conversation with Rapaport’s Joshua Freedman, describes how GIA field gemologists visit origin sites and collect stones, helping the institute’s labs around the world make provenance calls.
“What’s great is that they’re collecting samples there, and then they go back to the lab to analyze [them] across all the instrumentation, and then those pieces are getting dispersed to all of our labs globally,” she continues. “So we all have a piece of the field gemology department in-house. So when we have a stone come through, we’re able to analyze that chemistry…against our known samples of origin.”
In this episode, Ahline explains why origin determination varies between gemstones and how the GIA handles pieces that come through its doors.
She also outlines how the organization detects synthetics and treatments, as well as how it ensures consistency across its global labs.
The session, title “Gem Ident 101: Inside GIA’s Colored Stone Reports” – which took place as a LinkedIn Live – featured questions from the audience. Watch the full episode here:
This episode of GemTalks is brought to you by GIA – the Gemological Institute of America – ensuring confidence in gems and jewelry since 1931 through research, knowledge and innovation.
