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posted by mrpg on Wednesday July 18 2018, @03:50AM   Printer-friendly
from the I-prefer-charcoal dept.

Sound waves reveal diamond cache deep in Earth's interior

There may be more than a quadrillion tons of diamond hidden in the Earth's interior, according to a new study from MIT and other universities. But the new results are unlikely to set off a diamond rush. The scientists estimate the precious minerals are buried more than 100 miles below the surface, far deeper than any drilling expedition has ever reached.

The ultradeep cache may be scattered within cratonic roots — the oldest and most immovable sections of rock that lie beneath the center of most continental tectonic plates. Shaped like inverted mountains, cratons can stretch as deep as 200 miles through the Earth's crust and into its mantle; geologists refer to their deepest sections as "roots."

In the new study, scientists estimate that cratonic roots may contain 1 to 2 percent diamond. Considering the total volume of cratonic roots in the Earth, the team figures that about a quadrillion (1016) tons of diamond are scattered within these ancient rocks, 90 to 150 miles below the surface.

"This shows that diamond is not perhaps this exotic mineral, but on the [geological] scale of things, it's relatively common," says Ulrich Faul, a research scientist in MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences. "We can't get at them, but still, there is much more diamond there than we have ever thought before."

Also at National Geographic and Discover Magazine.

Multidisciplinary Constraints on the Abundance of Diamond and Eclogite in the Cratonic Lithosphere (DOI: 10.1029/2018GC007534) (DX)


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 18 2018, @05:24AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 18 2018, @05:24AM (#708680)

    Charcoal wins by a landslide.

    Can it win by something else, please? I'm just not a fan of landslides.

  • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Wednesday July 18 2018, @05:43PM

    by nitehawk214 (1304) on Wednesday July 18 2018, @05:43PM (#708896)

    Can it win by something else, please? I'm just not a fan of landslides.

    Sure, charcoal wins by an earthquake.

    --
    "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday July 19 2018, @05:11PM

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Thursday July 19 2018, @05:11PM (#709506) Homepage
    Did you know the Welsh for "fan of (charcoal-related) landslides" is "Aberfan".
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves