I would love to know more about "chameleon diamonds" ? What makes these diamonds able to change colors?

The chemical factor which provides the chameleon diamond its color changing properties is the abundant hydrogen atoms present in the diamond. This type of diamond, most commonly referred to as H-rich-type diamond will usually exhibit an ability to change from olive green to yellow. Color shifting between these two hue-spectrums is due to thermal change in the form of lighting. For example, if you were to place your olive green diamond under a lamp you will see that the diamond will start to display a yellow color instead. However, this color change is completely reversible and in a matter of a few seconds or a few minutes the diamond will go back to its resting state color.

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Chameleon diamonds are extremely rare and rarer yet are maverick color changing diamonds. These diamonds are exclusively found in Australia's famous Argyle diamond mine. Maverick diamonds are distinguished by either a gray-green color or a blue-violet color and have a color changing attribute when exposed to different temperature environments. The mechanism behind this amazing chemical property has yet to be fully analyzed, but scientists are inclined to think that it's due to the large hydrogen content within the diamond's composition.

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The diamond chameleon chemical mechanism is actually not that well understood and due to its extreme rarity very little literature has been devoted to this type of diamond. It was back in 1943 when Peter Kaplan provided the first ever documentation of the chameleon diamond. As the story goes, while Kaplan was polishing off the green colored diamond, he noticed that the heat produced from the friction created by the spinning wheel made the diamond change color to yellow. It was thus graded "light yellow green" in the diamond's certification and was sold in that manner. However, promptly after he purchased the diamond, the perplexed customer returned to the store to claim for a refund after he noticed that the diamond he had bought changed to a dark green color while it was stored in a cold safety box. A famous gemstone laboratory in Switzerland confesses that "chameleon diamonds are one of the great mysteries of the diamond world" and that "chameleons are among the most fascinating of colored diamonds". One thing's for sure though: a chameleon diamond will naturally carry its authentication certificate due to the fact that chameleon properties are very difficult to achieve artificially in a lab.

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