• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Finding Diamonds Just Got Easier Thanks To A New Discovery

February 10, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

Finding diamonds is notoriously difficult, but a new discovery may have just made it that little bit easier. Research has shown that a much less sought-after gem contains clues that can tell us if diamonds are likely to be nearby, and it could speed up the process of finding them.

“Diamond producers sometimes wish they were mining gold, copper or some other raw material, because nothing is as complicated as finding and mining diamonds,” says Andrea Giuliani, Senior Scientist at ETH Zurich’s Institute of Geochemistry and Petrology, in a statement. “There’s no method that guarantees that you will find diamonds.”

Advertisement

Rotten luck that humans have decided we want so many of them, then, but the pursuit of diamonds has turned up all kinds of interesting science. We’ve already worked out that diamonds are only ever found where a mineral called kimberlite is found, but that isn’t even half the struggle.

“Just looking for a kimberlite is like looking for a needle in a haystack,” Giuliani explained. “Once you’ve found it, then the arduous search for diamonds really gets underway.”

A diamond sticking out of kimberlite

A diamond sticking out of kimberlite like this is considered a rare find.

Image credit: ETH Zurich, Andrea Giuliani

Now, it seems another mineral may have sped up the process as it’s been discovered that there’s a connection between olivine and diamonds. Olivine makes up around half of kimberlite rock, and it contains varying concentrations of magnesium and iron. It’s the composition of olivine that is crucial here, because it seems that olivine that’s packing more magnesium than iron is a good sign for diamond miners. 

For olivine to be high in iron, melt has to penetrate the mantle, altering the composition of the rocks and wiping out diamonds in the process. Olivine that’s low in iron and higher in magnesium hasn’t undergone this geological process (known as metasomatism), and so the diamonds survive.

Advertisement

So, high iron? You’re probably out of luck, bud. But high magnesium? You’re in diamond country, baby.

De Beers provided the study with financial support and kimberlite samples, so they got early access to the results and are already using olivine analysis.

Pieces of olivine separated from kimberlite.

Pieces of olivine separated from kimberlite.

Image credit: ETH Zurich, Andrea Giuliani

“Our study shows that diamonds remain intact only when kimberlites entrain mantle fragments on their way up that haven’t extensively interacted with previous melt,” Giuliani concluded. “The great thing about this new method is not only that it’s simpler, but also that it finally allows us understand why the previous methods worked.”

The study is published in Nature Communications.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Tennis-Scrappy Sakkari survives gruelling three-setter to beat Andreescu
  2. Cricket-NZ players reach Dubai after ‘specific, credible threat’ derailed Pakistan tour
  3. Vatican trial prosecutors concede case gaps, willing to investigate more
  4. The Scottish Mummy That Turned Out To Be Made Of Three People

Source Link: Finding Diamonds Just Got Easier Thanks To A New Discovery

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Adorable But Critically Endangered Bornean Orangutan Born In Conservation Success
  • How Did The FDA Settle On The “2,000 Calories Per Day” Guideline?
  • Comet 3I/ATLAS Losing At Least Two Kangaroos’ Worth Of Dust Every Second
  • Mummified Dinosaur Duo Prove They Had Hooves, Marking “The First Confirmed Hooved Reptile”
  • What Do The Numbers On Your Toaster Really Mean?
  • NASA Vs. Elon Musk: Is A Moon Landing This Decade Off The Cards?
  • Scientists Explored Some Of The Deepest Parts Of The Ocean And Spotted Some Seriously Weird Deep-Sea Creatures
  • 500-Meter-Tall Megatsunami Struck Remote Alaskan Fjord After Massive Landslide
  • 3I/ATLAS, CKM Syndrome, And Mosquitoes’ Final Frontier
  • Male Humpback Dolphins Spotted Wearing Sea Sponge “Wigs” To Woo The Ladies
  • Can’t Sleep? The Military Sleep Trick That Helps You Fall Asleep in Just 2 Minutes
  • Why You Should Really, Really Not Eat Dolphin Meat
  • Odd Flashes Of Light On The Moon Have Been Recorded For Over A Thousand Years. What Are They?
  • The New York Times Said Machines Wouldn’t Fly For A Million Years (69 Days Before The First Flight)
  • IFLScience The Big Questions: Why Do People Believe In The Paranormal?
  • What Is “Japanese Walking”, And Should You Be Doing It?
  • AI Chatbots Found To Violate Ethical Standards When It Comes To Mental Health Discussions
  • Finding The Last Saolas: The Hunt For One Of The World’s Rarest Mammals Is On
  • This Is What People Actually See When They Have A Near-Death Experience
  • Bird Flu Is Making Headlines Once Again: What’s The Current Situation?
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version