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DIAMONDS. A quadrillion tons of them. Under your feet. Ready for capture
To reach them, you have to dig directly – about 150 km
This is quite in the very roots of the continents of our planet.
But a diamond rush is a bit useless. Not only the depth and heat are prohibitive, but their value will probably immediately suffer immense deflation once they are mundane.
Nevertheless, MIT researchers believe that their presence among the oldest known rocks can reveal a lot about the heart of our planet. "This shows that the diamond may not be this exotic mineral, but on the scale of things, it's relatively common," says Ulrich Faul, a researcher at the Department of Earth Sciences. , atmosphere and planets of MIT. "We can not reach them, but there are many more diamonds than we ever imagined before."
Their presence was revealed after researchers discovered an anomaly in seismic data – sound waves reflected by explosions or even earthquakes that penetrate deep into the earth.
Like the radar, this can be used to build an image of the inside of our planet.
This is an imposing image.
Our continents have "roots" – huge inverted mountains that extend deep into our core.
Called cratons, they are cooler and less dense than the surrounding mantle.
Reflected sound waves do not match expectations.
"Measured speeds are faster than we think we can reproduce with reasonable badumptions about what exists," says Faul. "Then we have to say," There is a problem. "That's how this project started."
The researchers tested the speed of sound in all types of rocks
They believe that these cratonic roots comprise in their composition about 1 to 2% of diamonds. Given the size of Earth's known cratonic roots, the team calculated that about four trillion diamonds are scattered within these ancient rocks, between 150 and 250 miles below the surface. surface area
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