By studying meteorites believed to be remnants of the catastrophic breakup of a dwarf planet, researchers are learning how lonsdaleite, a particularly hard type of diamond, forms in nature.
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Diamond Discovery Unearths Secrets of the Deep
A diamond inclusion has revealed a new mineral, davemaoite, as well as hints about the workings of our planet’s interior.
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Diamonds Are a Paleomagnetist’s Best Friend
Typical paleomagnetic measurements average a sample’s signal. The quantum diamond microscope helps scientists make micrometer-scale maps of magnetism, showing where a sample locked in its magnetic signatures.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Diamonds Are at Fault
Deep-seated earthquakes in subduction zones are related to diamond formation.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Explaining the Genesis of Superdeep Diamonds
Real-time tracking during diamond anvil cell experiments indicates reaction rates may control the unusual depth distribution of the extremely rare diamonds that form deep within Earth’s mantle.
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Are Diamonds Ubiquitous Beneath Old Stable Continents?
Although rare at the Earth’s surface, diamonds may be commonplace at depths of 120 to 150 kilometers below the surface within the lithosphere of old continents.
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Diamond Impurities Reveal Water Deep Within the Mantle
A high-pressure form of ice, trapped within diamonds forged in the lower mantle, suggests that aqueous fluids reside deeper in Earth than we knew.
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Diamonds Really Do Rain on Neptune, Experiments Conclude
Researchers subjected hydrocarbon samples in a laboratory to Neptune-like pressures. The samples, reminiscent of molecules found in the ice giant’s atmosphere, compressed into nanodiamonds.
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Mineral Flaws Clarify How Diamonds Form
A study of nanoscale, iron- and sulfur-rich impurities in diamonds provides new clues to the chemical processes that produce the superhard crystals and at what depths they occur.