Zircon is not Cubic Zirconia
Posted by Leah on Mar 13, 2006
Some recent posts on the Orchid jewelry forum (hosted by Ganoksin.com) reminded me of this issue.
Cubic zirconia is not zircon. Zircon is not cubic zirconia.
They are completely different materials that have similar sounding names. Chemically, zircon is ZrSiO4 and Cubic Zirconia is ZrO2.
In addition, cubic zirconia is almost always manmade, while zircon is a natural gemstone. Both are commonly used to simulate the look of diamonds, but just to be clear: neither is chemically related to diamond at all. Diamond, zircon, and cubic zirconia are three completely different gem materials.
