“Time Capsule” diamonds found in Canada provide “compelling evidence” that the Earth is over 2.7 billion years old, IDEX Online reports.
Michael Broadley, lead researcher from the University of Lorraine, France, and his team, used tiny diamonds recovered at Wawa, near Lake Superior, to conduct their research. During the online Goldschmidt Geochemistry conference, Broadley explained: “Most samples other than diamonds have been destroyed in the intervening years. Diamonds however, are comparatively indestructible, they’re ideal time capsules. These diamonds are incredibly rare, and are not like the beautiful gems we think of when we think of diamonds”.
They found that these rare findings act as “time capsules – minute quantities of gas trapped inside them reflect the chemical composition of the Earth’s mantle at the time they were formed”. According to the team, “proportions of chemicals vital to life – such as hydrogen and nitrogen – were largely the same then as they are now”.
