diamond Cullinan Mine

NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN MINERAL FOUND INSIDE A DIAMOND FROM CULLINAN

Science and diamonds have come together again for a unique discovery: calcium silicate perovskite, Earth’s fourth most abundant mineral but never before seen in nature, has been discovered inside a diamond from Petra’s famous Cullinan Mine in South Africa.

 

Graham Pearson, a professor in the University of Alberta’s Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences in Canada, explains: “Nobody has ever managed to keep this mineral stable at the Earth’s surface. The only possible way of preserving this mineral at the Earth’s surface is when it’s trapped in an unyielding container like a diamond. Based on our findings, there could be as much as zetta tonnes (1021) of this perovskite in deep Earth”.

 

Pearson and his colleagues found the calcium silicate perovskite in a diamond mined from less than one kilometre beneath Earth’s crust, at South Africa’s Cullinan Mine. The diamond in question originated roughly 700 kilometres below Earth’s surface, whereas most diamonds are formed at 150 to 200 kilometres depth. Pearson said the discovery once again “highlights the uniqueness of diamonds being able to preserve things that we otherwise would never be able to see”.

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