The Matryoshka (russian: Алмаз-матрёшка) is a double diamond, one with a second diamond moving freely inside. It was mined in

Yakutia Sakha, officially the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia),, is the largest republic of Russia, located in the Russian Far East, along the Arctic Ocean, with a population of roughly 1 million. Sakha comprises half of the area of its governing Far E ...

at the

Nyurba Nyurba ( rus, Нюрба, p=nʲʊˈrba; sah, Ньурба, ''Nyurba'' ) is a town and the administrative center of Nyurbinsky District of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located on the Vilyuy River, a right-hand tributary of the Lena, northwest of ...

mining and processing division of Alrosa. Due to its features, the stone resembles a traditional Russian

Matryoshka doll Matryoshka dolls ( ; rus, матрёшка, p=mɐˈtrʲɵʂkə, a=Ru-матрёшка.ogg), also known as stacking dolls, nesting dolls, Russian tea dolls, or Russian dolls, are a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside ano ...

. Experts who studied the find claimed that this was the first such diamond in the history of world diamond mining until October 2019. The maximum size of the diamond is 4.8 × 4.9 × 2.8 mm. The volume of the internal cavity is 6 mm³. The internal crystal volume is 1.6 mm³ with an estimated weight of 0.02 carats (0.004 grams). The inner diamond has a flat shape, its size is 1.9 × 2.1 × 0.6 mm. The diamond was discovered during the sorting process by the specialists of the Yakut Diamond Trading Company (YDTC). Specialists handed it over to the Research and Development Geological Enterprise of Alrosa. At the Enterprise, diamond was studied by a complex of methods, including Raman spectroscopy and

infrared spectroscopy Infrared spectroscopy (IR spectroscopy or vibrational spectroscopy) is the measurement of the interaction of infrared radiation with matter by absorption, emission, or reflection. It is used to study and identify chemical substances or function ...

, as well as

X-ray microtomography X-ray microtomography, like tomography and X-ray computed tomography, uses X-rays to create cross-sections of a physical object that can be used to recreate a virtual model (3D model) without destroying the original object. The prefix ''micro-'' ...

. As a result of the research, it was concluded that the inner diamond appeared before the external diamond. How an external diamond formed is not entirely clear. Two hypotheses are proposed to explain the formation of an external diamond. Alrosa plans to send the Matryoshka diamond to the

Gemological Institute of America The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) is a nonprofit institute based in Carlsbad, California. It is dedicated to research and education in the field of gemology and the jewelry arts. Founded in 1931, GIA's mission is to protect buyers and se ...

for further analysis. In October of 2021, Australian mining junior India Bore Diamond Holdings announced the discovery of a second double diamond (0.844 carats) extracted from its Ellendale alluvial deposit in Western Australia.

References

Diamonds originating in Russia Individual diamonds {{geology-stub

See also

References