Solid Diamond Cache Found Under the Surface of the Earth

Washington (AFP) – There is a pile of bling buried in the Earth.

More than a quadrillion tons of diamonds to be exact – or a thousand times more than a trillion – US researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported this week.

But do not expect a diamond rush. These precious natural minerals are located much further than any drilling expedition ever reached, at about 145 to 240 kilometers below the surface of our planet. says Ulrich Faul, a researcher at the Department of Earth Sciences, Atmosphere and Planets at MIT.

"This shows that diamond may not be this exotic mineral, but"

Using seismic technology to analyze how sound waves cross the Earth, scientists have detected the treasure of rocks called cratonic roots, which have the shape of inverted mountains extending across the earth's crust and

These are "the oldest and most immobile parts of the rock that lie under the center of most continental tectonic plates, "says MIT in a statement

. The researchers were surprised by the observations that the sound waves would accelerate considerably by crossing the roots of the old cratons.

So they assembled virtual rocks, made of various combinations of minerals, to calculate the speed at which the sound waves would cross them.

"Diamond in many ways is special," says Faul.

"One of its particular properties is that the speed of sound in diamond is twice as fast as in the dominant mineral rocks of the upper mantle, olivine."

They have found that the only type of rock that corresponded to the speeds they detected in the craton would contain 1 to 2% of diamonds.

Scientists now believe that ancient underground rocks contain at least 1000 times more diamonds than expected

Yet, very few of these gems are expected to go to the jeweler's shop.

Diamonds are made from carbon, and are formed under high pressure and extreme extreme temperatures in the Earth

They emerge near the surface only through volcanic eruptions that occur infrequently – from the surface of the earth. order of tens of millions of years.