How did diamonds come into existence?

Diamonds have been shaped 3 billion years in the past below circumstances of maximum warmth and strain within the Earth’s crust, which resulted in carbon atoms turning into crystals.

Diamonds are discovered at a depth of about 150-200 km beneath the earth’s floor. Temperatures right here common 900 to 1300 levels Celsius and pressures 45 to 60 kilobars (50,000 instances the atmospheric strain at Earth’s floor).

Underneath these circumstances, molten lamproite and kimberlite (generally known as magma) additionally kind throughout the Earth’s higher mantle and increase quickly. This enlargement causes the magma to erupt and push it to the floor of the Earth, however on the identical time, the magma brings with it the rock wherein the diamonds are shaped. This magma rises at unimaginable speeds and erupts as lava. Magma takes the trail of least resistance and types a ‘pipe’-like path behind it because it reaches the floor, known as a kimberlite pipe.

These kimberlite pipes are a very powerful supply of diamond exploration, nonetheless it’s estimated that only one in 200 kimberlite pipes comprise gem-quality diamonds. ‘Kimberlite’ is called after the city of Kimberley in South Africa the place diamonds have been first found in any such rock.