Lapis Lazuli Birthstone Wedding Fashion 2014 Jewellery In Bahamas 05

 Lapis Lazuli Birthstone Wedding Fashion 2014 Jewellery In Bahamas.

 By Aamir Mannan

The intense blue color is due to the presence of the S3- radical anion in the crystal.[11] An electronic excitation of one electron from the highest doubly filled molecular orbital (No. 24) into the lowest singly occupied orbital results in a very intense absorption line at λmax ~617 nm.

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Lapis lazuli is found in limestone in the Kokcha River valley of Badakhshan province in northeastern Afghanistan, where the Sar-e-Sang mine deposits have been worked for more than 6,000 years. Afghanistan was the source of lapis for the ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations, as well as the later Greeks and Romans. Ancient Egyptians obtained this material through trade from Afghanistan. During the height of the Indus valley civilization about 2000 BC, the Harappan colony now known as Shortugai was established near the lapis mines.

In addition to the Afghan deposits, lapis is also extracted in the Andes (near Ovalle, Chile); and to the west of Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia, at the Tultui Lazurite deposit. It is mined in smaller amounts Angola; Argentina; Burma; Pakistan; Canada; Italy, India; and in the USA in California and Colorado.