There is nothing fairly like a diamond. For many they’re the final word “I love you” present, and jewellers will inform you the ultra-hard stones have unmatched “fire” and “brilliance”. The sentimental and aesthetic worth of the gems is matched by their worth, which can run to tens of thousand {dollars} per carat – and much more for colored diamonds, particularly if they’re blue, inexperienced, violet, orange, crimson or pink.
But why are diamonds so costly? How do they kind? Do we actually discover diamonds in volcanoes? What is the hyperlink to supercontinents and historic lifeforms?
In new analysis printed in Nature Communications, we reply a few of these questions by finding out the world’s largest diamond deposit, Argyle in Western Australia, the supply of greater than 90% of pink diamonds.
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We discovered that at Argyle, diamonds crystallised deep in Earth’s inside were dropped at the floor when a supercontinent, Nuna, started to interrupt aside. As continents break up, their edges stretch, permitting small pockets of diamond-rich magma to rise to the floor.
Why are pink diamonds so particular?
Only about 20% of mined diamonds are of gemstone high quality. If you consider diamonds as automobiles, 80 of each 100 on the street could be previous, beat-up rides and 20 could be luxurious automobiles.
One in each 10,000 could be the equal of a supercar: a uncommon and treasured colored diamond.
However, some locations on the earth are particular. Just as you may see a better proportion of supercars in Monaco or Hollywood, so too do some locations produce extra colored diamonds.
When it involves pink diamonds, one place stands alone. More than 90% of all of the pink diamonds ever discovered come from a single mine within the Kimberley area of Western Australia: Argyle.
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The Argyle mine closed in 2020, and the value of pink diamonds has skyrocketed whereas the availability dwindles.
While pink diamonds are extremely prized, they’re additionally in a sense “damaged goods”.
Diamonds are product of carbon atoms organized in a compact, common lattice. Clear, excellent diamonds sparkle as a result of mild displays off their inner surfaces.
However, when diamonds are topic to intense strain deep inside Earth, the lattice of atoms can twist and bend. This causes small imperfections that diffract mild and produce color to the gem.
Why is Argyle so well-endowed in pink diamonds?
All diamonds are present in pipelike volcanoes, or of their eroded remnants. These volcanoes have deep roots underneath continents, which is the place diamonds reside.
The roots should be deep. If they’re shallow, the carbon which may turn out to be diamonds will as a substitute be within the type of graphite, which isn’t practically as interesting on an engagement ring.
The story of the Argyle volcano begins some 1,800 million years in the past, when the continental plate beneath the Kimberley smashed into the remainder of WA to kind the primary supercontinent, Nuna. Five hundred million years later, Nuna ripped aside once more whereas Australia hung collectively.
Yet previous wounds by no means totally heal. The suture between the Kimberley and the remainder of the continent was stretched open as Nuna cut up up, and the Argyle volcano shot to the floor, bringing pink diamonds with it. The loss of life of a supercontinent gave delivery to Argyle.
So what made Argyle’s diamonds pink? The pressure that broken the deep diamonds, ensuing of their stunning hue, in all probability got here from the continental collision that fashioned the supercontinent within the first place. But the diamonds remained deep beneath this previous wound for a very long time earlier than being dropped at the floor.
Will we discover one other trove of pink diamonds? With Argyle now closed, the search is on to fulfill the demand for these illustrious gems.
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The elements look like continental breakup, the sides of historic continents and volcanic pipes.
Is carbon recycled in Earth’s inside?
Finding diamonds isn’t any mere quest for glitz and glamour. It’s an exploration of Earth’s deepest historical past.
Diamonds are historic time capsules from the depths of our planet. They are relics of a previous so distant it challenges comprehension.
We know they’re product of pure carbon – however the place did this carbon come from?
Most of the carbon is remnants of carbon-rich asteroids that clumped collectively to kind Earth 4.5 billion years in the past.
However, some diamonds comprise carbon that was as soon as a part of residing organisms. Organic carbon, from organisms that when thrived on Earth’s floor, obtained buried deep down by geological processes.
The Argyle diamonds, as an illustration, maintain such natural imprints, like echoes from an historic world lengthy vanished. In these glimmers of the distant previous, we discover greater than magnificence; we discover keys to unlock essentially the most profound secrets and techniques of our planet’s historical past.
