Gemologist will appear on Science Channel's 'Meteorite Men'
Although peridot usually costs between $50 and $150 per carat, when the vivid green gemstone falls to Earth embedded in a meteorite, it can fetch upward of $1,000 per carat.
“It's the only gem we have from outer space,” said John Koivula, chief gemologist the Carlsbad-based Gemological Institute of America. “That's kind of the allure.”
So-called microdiamonds have been discovered in meteorites, but they are usually about the size of a pinhead, Koivula said.
“You can't cut anything out of them,” he said. “They're industrial diamonds, basically.”
The transparent to translucent crystalline fragments are found in a rare form of meteorite, sandwiched between nickel and iron.
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“The very minimum distance they're coming from is the asteroid belt out beyond Mars, but these things could also very easily come from outside of our solar system,” he said.
