Women love them, men kill for them - but what's special about these hard, shiny chips of rock? Quite a bit, as it turns out! Let's take a look at...
The Diamond Showers of SaturnDid you know that some planets rain diamonds? The gas giants Jupiter and Saturn have atmospheres filled with methane and lightning - a volatile combination that produces soot as the methane burns. Scientists theorize that this falling soot gets crushed by the heat and pressure of these planets, hardening first into graphite then diamond - the end result being a hail of the glittering crystals.
Unfortunately any opportunistic entrepreneur would have a hard time collecting them, assuming they were able to get to and somehow survive on a gas giant. The diamonds are thought to fall through the gas until reaching the molten core of the planet, melting into it like a diamond sea.
A better option may be carbon-rich exo-planets. Experiments carried out by Arizona State University and the University of Chicago found that a planet with a higher ratio of carbon to oxygen than Earth has could form into diamond, in the right circumstances.
Both of these are outclassed by the celestial diamond known as "Lucy." Lucy is a crystallized white dwarf, the hot heart of a mostly-dead star. After the outer layers of a star have been blown away to form a nebula, the core of carbon and oxygen remains... and can crystallize into diamond.
Earth itself may have had a rain of diamonds for a brief period. The "black" carbonado diamonds found in Africa and South Africa contain hydrogen and nitrogen in a way the the native diamonds of Earth do not. Since conditions in interstellar space are thought to be high in hydrogen, some scientists suggest the diamonds have an extraterrestrial origin!
86 million years ago in South Africa, a jet of magma blazed hundreds of miles through the Earth to reach the surface in a matter of hours, driving the existing ground before it. In 1869 a shepherd would find a large, shiny stone that would be the first find of the Kimberley Mine - a massive hand-dug diamond pit.
Diamond formations (known as kimberlites) are rare, coming from deep magma that has reached the surface. They "collect" diamonds as they rise through the rock, acting like a reverse avalanche. It takes very specific conditions for a kimberlite to form and reach the surface, and scientists suggest that kimberlite outbreaks are tied to the movement of tectonic plates.
Panning for DiamondsThough you might not expect it, the earliest form of diamond mining had a lot in common with panning for gold. Kimberlite that had reached the surface and been eroded by wind and water dropped diamonds into the surrounding gravel... meaning that a lucky observer could pick one of the crystals right off the ground, or sift streams like an Old-West prospector. This kind of lives on in the form of marine mining, or sending out a ship with a specialized "crawler" to suck up diamond-bearing gravel from the sea floor.
When it comes to digging diamonds out of the ground, a more direct approach is taken - explosives! Either by blasting kimberlites from the walls of an open pit mine, or making a "blast tunnel" that drops broken ore into a "collection tunnel" beneath it, the resilience of diamonds allows them to survive this brutal form of mining.
In a move that some might call classy, others gaudy, certain companies offer to turn the ashes of a loved one (or pet) into a man made diamond. The costs vary wildly based on the desired size and qualities of the finished stone.
The idea is pretty simple - extract carbon from the remains, use heat and pressure to turn it into an industrial diamond, then have the stone cut and mounted.
The Jewel that BurnsDiamonds may be hard and dense, but in the end they are carbon - and carbon can burn. According to the Gemstone Institute of America, diamonds will typically burn at around 1562°F or 850°C - a candle flame can exceed this!
Speaking of candles, did you know that they actually produce diamonds? Researchers have found that a candle flame contains nanoparticles of diamond, formed as it burns. Starting as hydrocarbons at the base of the flame, graphitic and amorphous carbon are joined by fullerenic carbon and diamond nanoparticles... before being converted to carbon-dioxide at the tip of the flame. It seems that an average candle produces around 1.5 million diamond nanoparticles per second!
- The Diamond Showers of Saturn
- When the Earth Fountained Diamonds
- Panning for Diamonds
- An Eternity in Crystal
- The Jewel that Burns
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| Diamonds can be found, or they can be grown... (GrownDiamond) |
The Diamond Showers of SaturnDid you know that some planets rain diamonds? The gas giants Jupiter and Saturn have atmospheres filled with methane and lightning - a volatile combination that produces soot as the methane burns. Scientists theorize that this falling soot gets crushed by the heat and pressure of these planets, hardening first into graphite then diamond - the end result being a hail of the glittering crystals.
Unfortunately any opportunistic entrepreneur would have a hard time collecting them, assuming they were able to get to and somehow survive on a gas giant. The diamonds are thought to fall through the gas until reaching the molten core of the planet, melting into it like a diamond sea.
A better option may be carbon-rich exo-planets. Experiments carried out by Arizona State University and the University of Chicago found that a planet with a higher ratio of carbon to oxygen than Earth has could form into diamond, in the right circumstances.
Both of these are outclassed by the celestial diamond known as "Lucy." Lucy is a crystallized white dwarf, the hot heart of a mostly-dead star. After the outer layers of a star have been blown away to form a nebula, the core of carbon and oxygen remains... and can crystallize into diamond.
Earth itself may have had a rain of diamonds for a brief period. The "black" carbonado diamonds found in Africa and South Africa contain hydrogen and nitrogen in a way the the native diamonds of Earth do not. Since conditions in interstellar space are thought to be high in hydrogen, some scientists suggest the diamonds have an extraterrestrial origin!
When the Earth Fountained Diamonds
Diamonds can be formed from carbon in the heat and pressure deep beneath the surface of Earth - but how do they get to the surface? As it turns out, carried by fountains of molten rock.86 million years ago in South Africa, a jet of magma blazed hundreds of miles through the Earth to reach the surface in a matter of hours, driving the existing ground before it. In 1869 a shepherd would find a large, shiny stone that would be the first find of the Kimberley Mine - a massive hand-dug diamond pit.
Diamond formations (known as kimberlites) are rare, coming from deep magma that has reached the surface. They "collect" diamonds as they rise through the rock, acting like a reverse avalanche. It takes very specific conditions for a kimberlite to form and reach the surface, and scientists suggest that kimberlite outbreaks are tied to the movement of tectonic plates.
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| Volcanic activity can carry diamond bearing rock to the surface... (Life-Of-Pix) |
Panning for DiamondsThough you might not expect it, the earliest form of diamond mining had a lot in common with panning for gold. Kimberlite that had reached the surface and been eroded by wind and water dropped diamonds into the surrounding gravel... meaning that a lucky observer could pick one of the crystals right off the ground, or sift streams like an Old-West prospector. This kind of lives on in the form of marine mining, or sending out a ship with a specialized "crawler" to suck up diamond-bearing gravel from the sea floor.
When it comes to digging diamonds out of the ground, a more direct approach is taken - explosives! Either by blasting kimberlites from the walls of an open pit mine, or making a "blast tunnel" that drops broken ore into a "collection tunnel" beneath it, the resilience of diamonds allows them to survive this brutal form of mining.
An Eternity in Crystal
Diamonds are, when you get down to it, carbon. Can you guess what humans contain a lot of?In a move that some might call classy, others gaudy, certain companies offer to turn the ashes of a loved one (or pet) into a man made diamond. The costs vary wildly based on the desired size and qualities of the finished stone.
The idea is pretty simple - extract carbon from the remains, use heat and pressure to turn it into an industrial diamond, then have the stone cut and mounted.
 |
| Candles generate diamond nanoparticles... which subsequently burn! (Ri_Ya) |
The Jewel that BurnsDiamonds may be hard and dense, but in the end they are carbon - and carbon can burn. According to the Gemstone Institute of America, diamonds will typically burn at around 1562°F or 850°C - a candle flame can exceed this!
Speaking of candles, did you know that they actually produce diamonds? Researchers have found that a candle flame contains nanoparticles of diamond, formed as it burns. Starting as hydrocarbons at the base of the flame, graphitic and amorphous carbon are joined by fullerenic carbon and diamond nanoparticles... before being converted to carbon-dioxide at the tip of the flame. It seems that an average candle produces around 1.5 million diamond nanoparticles per second!
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