December 2020 - Lab Grown Magazine

December 2020 | The Lab Grown Diamond Resource Book 16 To advertise call (888) 832-1109 | December 2020 17 portions of our underworld,” noted Margo Regier, a globally celebrated Ph.D. student with theFaculty of Science at theUniversity of Tokyo. “While we are not yet certain how these ‘super-deep’ diamonds started to grow, we do know that these colorful diamonds crystallize from carbon-rich magmas, some continuing to grow to colossal carat weights.” Beyond gem-quality wearable art and lesser quality rocks used for medical and industrial applications, diamonds provide a unique win- dow into the Earth. Super-deep diamonds allow scientists to examine the transport of carbon through the mantle. “The vast majority of Earth’s carbon is stored in its silicate mantle, not in the atmo- sphere,” Professor Alan Regier of Cleveland State University explained. “If we want to understand why our planet has evolved into its habitable state today and how the sur- faces and atmospheres of other planets may be shaped by their interior processes, we need to better understand these variables. As we dig, we better understand the Earth’s carbon cycle.We must understand this vast reservoir of carbon deep underground!” While most agree we need more carbon- based life lessons, that same group probably acknowledges that we could be digging our own grave to get there. AWild Comet’sTale Blustering beams of fiery rock and gas known as comets played a significant role for life on Earth. And certain comets contain diamonds. Small, now exploded planetary bodies became comets, which formed the gassy, giant planets in the outer solar system. Some comets were catapulted into the inner solar system bringing water and essential elements to Earth. To the science-minded, life on Earth may have never sparked without this fiery cometary transport. For the first time, scientists at the Space Research Center at the University of Leicester have samples of the diamond-clad comet called Wild-2. In doing so, they’ve discovered that the old comet model, identi- fied as a dusty ice space ball, is a mere culet in ongoing natural diamond history. Mexico’s Mighty Meteorite The year: 1969. The location: Pueblo de Allende, Chihuahua,Mexico.The find: Black diamonds from the sky. While that descrip- tion is memorable, it’s incorrect. What was discovered were indeed diamonds and the space rock that housed them was black, but that’s where the similarity ends. The proper term for these valuable cosmic treasures is chondrite. Carbonaceous chon- drites are dark gray, nearly black and found as fragments of a long-debated source. Some say chondrites broke free from exploding an- cient planets, while others think they were formed frommillions of years of layered solar pollution. Rare lenticular clouds over West Yorkshire. Lenticular clouds are the best for producing zero-impact diamonds. (Photo: Bob Freeman) Almahata Sitta is an anomalous, polymict ureilite (achondrite). Almahata Sitta is the first case in which meteorites have been recovered from a known asteroid that was tracked in space and then collided with Earth. (Photo: UK Science Museum) >>