Scientists found a quadrillion tons of diamonds under the surface of the Earth

This diamond on your wedding ring is not as rare as you might think.

Using sound waves, scientists discovered a cache of diamonds distributed deep beneath the surface of the Earth, and that's more than a quadrillion tons of precious ore (you read that right).

This is according to a new study published by a team of MIT researchers, Harvard, and the University of California at Berkeley, among other leading institutions.

"This shows that the diamond may not be this exotic mineral, but on the scale of things [geological] it is relatively common," Ulrich Faul, researcher at the Department of terrestrial, atmospheric and planetary sciences of MIT. the author is on the study, said. "We can not reach them, but there are many more diamonds than we have ever imagined before."

Diamonds are located in underground rock formations called cratons. These formations – which have the shape of inverted mountains and are at the center of the planet's tectonic plates, according to MIT News – extend up to 200 miles into the Earth.

The researchers estimate that the roots, or lower sections, of these cratons can be composed of 1-2% of diamond.

In Search of Diamonds with Seismic Activity

You may be better aware of how records of seismic activity – sound waves traveling across the Earth – are used to record earthquakes. Earth.

Scientists also use seismic data to reveal what the deepest parts of the Earth are, and paint a picture of what the inside of the planet looks like.

Sound waves travel at different speeds depending on the composition, temperature and density of the rocks and minerals they pass through, which allows scientists to estimate the types of rocks below the surface of the Earth by comparing the speeds of these waves. waves, according to MIT News.

Researchers have found that these sound waves tend to accelerate when they cross the bottom, or roots, of cratons – much faster than they previously thought.

After conducting a series of experiments in the laboratory where they sent sound waves through different rocks, the researchers found that only rocks containing 1-2% of diamond, among other components, could produce the speeds recorded in the craton roots.

To estimate the total mass of diamonds in the Earth, the researchers assumed that cratonic roots contained 1 to 2% of diamonds and combined with the total volume of cratonic roots spread over the Earth. The number they found: 10 ¹⁶ tons of diamonds, more than 1000 times more than what we thought before.

"We have gone through all the possibilities, from all angles, and it's the only one that remains as a reasonable explanation," Faul said.

Diamonds, however, are impossible to exploit. They are located between 90 and 150 miles below the surface of the Earth, which is much deeper than the drills are able to reach.