Diamonds, the rarest and one of the most precious minerals found on the face of the Earth are not so rare in reality. According to the latest research, there is a huge stash of Diamonds with more than quadrillion tons of diamonds hidden deep below the Earth’s surface waiting to be extracted. The research published in the journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems was concluded by a team of researchers from top-tier institutions such as the University of California, MIT, Harvard among others.
As per the research paper, diamond is available in abundance on a geological scale although it is not possible to extract it yet due to its location deep below the Earth’s surface. These hidden stashes of diamonds are buried in underground rock formations called cratons which are inverted mountains located at the center of Earth’s tectonic plate and can stretch up to 200 miles from the surface. They further concluded that the bottom sections of these cratons are composed of 1-2% diamonds after concluding an elaborate experiment using sound wave.
Researchers collate seismic from the U.S. Geological Survey and another competent department. Further, they used seismic records in order to under and create a virtual and create a virtual map of the speed of sound waves below the surface of the Earth during earthquakes, etc. After compiling the data, they prepared a virtual map of the rocks below the surface based on the velocity of the sound waves whose speed varies based on the composition of rocks density, and temperature and minerals included after which, they curated the data and prepare a virtual map as said.
After obtaining the data gathered from sound waves passed, they studied the same with different types of rocks in a lab. They created different rocks with varying compositions and minerals and found out that those rocks containing 1-2% diamond sped up the velocity of the sound waves similar to the velocity of the sound wave that was recorded when it passed through cratons’ roots. After gathering the data, thus estimated the total quantity of diamond assuming that 1-2% of the cratonic roots were composed of diamonds and compared it with the volume of the cratonic roots through the Earth.
After calculating the two factors they found mind-boggling results which states that there are over quadrillion tons of diamonds stashed in these roots, 1016 tons of diamonds to be exact. Researchers took a number of possibilities and contemplated each of them after which, the conclusion based on the presence of diamonds was the only reasonable definition because of which, sound waves could speed up where they reach the cratonic roots.
Now this concludes that the diamond isn’t that rare in reality, however, it is yet not possible to extract it as it could be located well below 90 to 150 miles below the surface or more and there is no drill big enough to carry such a monstrous task, but it is not impossible.
