Hobbies And Interests
Location
Zircon stones are found in several parts of the world including Sri Lanka, Australia, and Brazil, reports gemsociety.org. It is also found in Cambodia, Myanmar, portions of Africa and Thailand.
Heat Treating
Zircon, which occurs naturally in a variety of colors from colorless to yellow, brown and reddish-brown, must be heat treated to between 800 and 1000 degrees Celsius to achieve a blue color, reports gemselect.com.
Structure
The structure of zircon gemstones, according to gemsociety.org, is tetragonal. Gemselect.com explains that this means the crystals are prisms with four sides and pyramidal ends.
Characteristics
Blue zircons range in hardness from 6 to 8 on the Moh's hardness scale (diamonds are 10) and are quite dense. The clarity can be rather opaque (rarely), but typically are transparent or translucent, reports gemselect.com
Uses
The main use of blue zircon is in jewelry, though the tendency of zircon gemstones to chip on the facets limits their uses to occasional wear pieces.