Where Do Diamonds Come From?
Diamonds. You see them in jewelry stores, celebrities flaunting them, but where do they come from? Turns out not from coal! Check out this episode to find out what conditions are needed for...
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Diamonds: they’re shiny, tough, and an icon of marriage proposals. On a chemical level, a diamond is just a bunch of carbon atoms bonded together in tetrahedrons. This crystal structure is why diamond is the hardest natural mineral, and beats most man-made ones too! So, we know that diamonds are special, but where do they come from in the first place? Diamonds are formed in really extreme conditions, which is why you might find them at the sites of asteroid impacts, and even on meteorites in space. But we think most natural diamonds were made millions, if not billions of years ago, in the splooshy molten rock deep within the Earth. Over 160 kilometers beneath the Earth’s surface, the intense heat and pressure forced carbon atoms into that tetrahedral st...
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Diamonds: they’re shiny, tough, and an icon of marriage proposals. On a chemical level, a diamond is just a bunch of carbon atoms bonded together in tetrahedrons. This crystal structure is why diamond is the hardest natural mineral, and beats most man-made ones too! So, we know that diamonds are special, but where do they come from in the first place? Diamonds are formed in really extreme conditions, which is why you might find them at the sites of asteroid impacts, and even on meteorites in space. But we think most natural diamonds were made millions, if not billions of years ago, in the splooshy molten rock deep within the Earth. Over 160 kilometers beneath the Earth’s surface, the intense heat and pressure forced carbon atoms into that tetrahedral st...
