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Diopside
The transparent, greenish varieties are used
as gems an - have no separate name; however, the brilliant
green var ety, which also contains chrome (as can be seen,
for ex ample, from the absorption spectrum), is known as chrom•
diopside.
Appearance Gem diopside is generally a dark,
bottl green, but may also be light, rather dull, yellowish
greer However, when the color is due to chrome, it can be
a live lier, almost emerald hue. It has unexceptional, vitreous
lus ter, and is given both mixed, oval, and cabochon cuts.
It inot very common, and gems weighing many carats ar•
rare.
Distinctive features The bottle green color
with quit, strong birefringence is fairly characteristic,
but as it car closely resemble certain tourmalines and olivines
of a sim, lar color, the physical properties normally have
to be mea sured to confirm identification.
Occurrence Gem diopside comes mainly from
Brazil, S, Lanka, Burma, and Madagascar. New York, Italy,
Austrir and Switzerland also produce fine quality gemstone,
Chrome diopside is found in South Africa and Finland. Value
It is not a very well known gem, outside the areawhere it
is mined and cut, and is not highly prized. The brilliant
green (chrome diopside) varieties are of low value even compared
with other secondary gems. The dark light green varieties
are worth still less.
Simulants and synthetics It is neither imitated
nor p, duced synthetically.
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