SHINE RIGHT WITH THAT DIAMOND

One of my female friends asked if I could tell if on her engagement she could come to me and see if the ring she gets is a real diamond or not. So the first question I asked is "how sure are you’ll get engaged or get a diamond ring?"... Let’s just say I had to buy her lunch as an excuse of an apology.But anyway, away from my daftness, how would an ordinary Kenyan Republic citizenry, without the know-how , get to differentiate a genuine diamond from a fake? Well, fake or real, firstly you will need to get an actual/real Kenyan man who is willing to buy you a diamond ring, no matter how many carats it holds, which as I am told the number of carats increases with love, so I will have to explain carats later in another blog. I doubt women care anyway as long as its shinny and shaped just right. So back to the point. 

this stone has been graded both highest in colour and clarity grading – D colour and Flawless. The diamond was cut from a 236 carat rough diamond that was discovered at the Jwaneng Mine in Botswana. Because of the sheer size of the rough diamond and the intricacy of cutting this 101ct beauty, the stone took almost 2 years to polish (http://www.77diamonds.com)

Diamonds- yes- The most popular diamond fake is a Cube Zirconia (C.Z for the purposes of this article).Thse ways listed here are not scientifically proven or fully effective but they could be of great help and are simple...somewhat.The oldest trick in the book is “all diamond scratches glass”. True. But so do every other fake in the black (ok I sometimes find this racist) market. C.Z scratches easily. 
This picture below shows abrasions at the facet junctions and scratches when looked at closely under a magnifying glass.


 
Fakes are also cut in a very sloppy manner most of the time. My advice then is use this with extreme care (meaning never)
My favorite has to be the fog test. Take the diamond place it in front of your mouth and just breathe on it. If the fog lasts for, lets say 2-4 seconds, congratulations your man is cheap! Diamond, releases heat instantaneously so the fog will have cleared up before you get to see it. (A downfall to this is that oil and dirt on the rock could affect its reliability)
For you who like having those kinky U.V lights in your bedrooms, you can use that light to do other things other than set the mood. When “doing your thing”-  because I know you probably have the ring on, and before it gets too exciting to notice- look at the diamond under the ultraviolet light, it should have a blue fluorescence. Most of the fakes usually don’t have it. Good for you if its real, but there is a twist too, it’s less valuable. I avoided saying cheap on this on this one. Lack of the blue fluorescence could mean its either a fake or of better quality. Two extremes in one.
The weight test. If you have a butcher husband, you would he would probably have a trophy cabinet of some of his prized measuring scales or whatever his fetish is. C.V will weigh 55% more than the real thing of the same shape and size. The fake diamond will then definitely tilt downwards towards itself in all its attention seeking.The next one if the most effective to some extent. 

The transparency test

Step one

Take a blank piece of paper and draw a dot on it with a pen

Step two

Take your “ice” turn it upside down on the paper and center it on the dot.





Step three

After its set and centered observe. The C.Z will have a circular reflection of the dot. The diamond will break up the reflection to a point where it becomes impossible to recognize

  




“I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number of carats in a diamond.”
photo credits here

Geology Of Africa's Second Highest Mountain

Ludwig Krapf, was the 1st European to see Mt Kenya. It was on the 3rd day of December in the year of the lord 1849 A.D. together with  Another European Rebmann, was also the first to see Mt Kilimanjaro , they went back to Europe to a critical reception from their peers. They claimed that what they say were not snow capped mountains but calcareous earth. Krapf’s claim was confirmed in 1887 by fellow explorer Joseph Thomson when he saw the mountain from the Laikipia plateau, and described it as an eroded remnant of the old volcano, the peak being ‘’……the column of lava which closed the volcanic life of the mountain….”. the 1st ascent to the upper part of the mountain was made in 1887 by Count Teleki, who reached an altitude of approximately 13800 feet in the Teleki valley. The summit of Mt. Kenya was climbed for the first time by H. J. Mackinder and two Alpine guides on September 13th 1899.

The mountain itself a volcanic pile consisting of Precambrian age Trachytes, Basalts, Phonolites,Kenytes, Rhomb porphyries. From your high school geography you probably know it’s a composite volcano and for those who avoided geography then now you know. Its plug is composed of nepheline syenite and phonolite in ring structure. Here are some of the peaks and their respective heights in meters
Batian 5199m, Nelion 5188m, Point Lenana 4985m, Point Pigott 4957m, Point Thomson and Thomson Flake 4955m, Point Dutton 4885m, Point Melhuish 4880m, Point John 4863m, Point Peter 4757m, Midget peak 4700m.
Photos courtesy of  John Jammin

Rough route overlay of the Normal Route on Nelion, with key features marked.

Mount Kenya as seen from the Hall Tarns on the Chogoria route. Point Lenana is on the left hand side and the twin summits of Nelion and Batian are on the right.

South side of Mount Kenya as seen from the head of the Teleki valley. Batian and Nelion are the twin summits and Point John  in the right forground.

glaciers atop Mt Kenya 

Lets start here....ROCKS NOT STONES!!!!

Geology is one of the most misunderstood professions in the world not in Kenya alone. When I tell people am a Geologists their mind immediately thinks….. “Geography” and a friend of mine even thinks I study “Meteorology” how that came to be am not even sure. Explaining it is even harder so let’s start with the basics. WE STUDY ROCKS NOT STONES! Stones are for masons and construction workers. Rocks have minerals and that is what holds all that gold, coal and titanium you hear about. So please don’t ask me if the coal in Kitui looks like the charcoal we burn from acacia trees. Geology is not Geography these two are as far in meaning as your ignorance of the same! We believed “dirt is good” before OMO could mint money from the phrase. If your mum was a geologist coming home clean would be an insult to her professionalism. She is trying to groom you and you come home looking like you have been in an office all day? That would be an injustice.
“PUNK ROCK” “CLASSIC ROCKS” “HARD ROCK’’ or “METAL” and “ROCK n ROLL” are not the only types of music we listen too.

 If they actually sung about different types of metals in these songs and mentioned a type of rock in it then maybe we would have been more attentive. ‘’THE ROCK’’ is not my favourite all time wrestler. I will probably not ‘’make your bedrock’’ but I will tell you why it did. We are the only people who will not run away from rocks not thrown our way, in fact we chase the rocks and try to catch them before they land and my fellow colleagues makes claim to it. We would make the best riot police, collect all the rocks you throw at us until you have none to throw and the demonstration would die peacefully as we count our blessings while the rioters feel sorry for themselves. You see pot-holes we see depressions.
 Ladies, a geologist will not see those wrinkles he will see lineations, anything less than 10 million years is considered young or recent so no matter how old you get you will never be really old. Probably why we don’t like bank loans too. The only thing we notice about attractive members of the opposite sex is the stone in their jewellery. When you sit there looking at the sunset behind Mt Kenya I don’t get past the mountain itself.
Even in the Bible all we look for is what type of rubies, sapphire, or gold were traded? What rock were the commandments written on? What rock made Jesus’ tomb? How did they smelt that gold they made those idol gods from? What was used to make the Walls Of Jerico? How did they make their swords was there an iron smelting factory we didn’t know of? Was the water running from the rocks from an aquifer? What method did they use to look for water? We don’t see the point at ‘wishing on a falling star’ to us that’s just another rock that can help us know how the earth formed so we are secretly hoping it stops burning and just drops as it is! Geology is in everything you use that laptop you’re reading this from the mouse you used to click the link to this article, to the salt you used some hours ago, that car you drive to that toilet seat you’re going to use today. So we all live the science a bit every day. This rant might go on forever but I think you get my point so to cap it all off ‘’WE ROCK’’.