Where do diamonds come from? Detailed answer

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Where do diamonds come from? Detailed answer

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Where do diamonds come from?

From volcanoes. All diamonds are formed underground, under the influence of ultra-high temperatures and pressure, and volcanic eruptions carry them to the surface.

The formation of diamonds occurs at a depth of 160 to 480 km. Most diamonds are found in volcanic rock called kimberlite and are mined in areas where volcanic activity is common. All other, random, diamonds are simply washed out of kimberlite pipes.

Today, there are twenty countries in the world where diamonds are mined. South Africa ranks fifth in terms of production - after Australia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Botswana and Russia.

Diamonds are made up of pure carbon. Just like graphite, a substance from which pencil leads are made, but in which the carbon atoms are arranged differently. Diamond is one of the hardest substances found in nature: ten on the Mohs hardness scale; graphite, on the contrary, is one of the softest substances with an indicator of only one and a half points, that is, a little harder than the softest substance on the same scale - talc.

The largest diamond known to mankind is 4000 km across and weighs ten billion trillion trillion carats. Discovered just above Australia (XNUMX light-years away), the diamond sits inside the star Lucy in the constellation of the Centaur.

Astronomers have named this huge star "Lucy" after the Beatles classic "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", but its "technical" name is "white dwarf BP 37093". The song itself was named after a drawing by John Lennon's son Julian of his four-year-old girlfriend Lucy Richardson.

Once upon a time, diamonds were the hardest material known to mankind. However, in August 2005, German scientists managed to get an even harder thing in the laboratory. Called ACNR, the new material consists of carbon "nanorods" bonded together and is made by compressing and heating superstrong carbon molecules to a temperature of 2226°C.

Each of these molecules is composed of sixty atoms intertwined in pentagonal and hexagonal geometries; they are said to resemble tiny soccer balls. ACNR is a material so hard that even a diamond can be easily scratched.

Author: John Lloyd, John Mitchinson

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

Is there any weight near the air?

Most of us think that air is "nothing", but air is clearly "something" if it is made up of certain gases. Gas does not have a definite size or shape, but it occupies space. The vast ocean of air that surrounds the earth and stretches upward for miles is pulled and held together by the earth's gravity. Therefore, air has weight. And since air is all around us, it adds weight to any object it fills.

For example, a volleyball contains a small amount of air. If you weigh two of these balls, one inflated and one deflated, you will find that the deflated ball is lighter. The weight of the air creates pressure. Air presses on your whole body from all sides, like water if you are at the bottom of the sea. A huge mass of air presses very hard on the Earth, and the pressure at the same time is about one kilogram per square centimeter.

A kilogram is the weight of a column of air with a base area of 1 square centimeter and a height equal to that of the atmosphere. The area of your palm is approximately 77 square centimeters. Imagine that a weight of 77 kilograms is placed on your palm! The reason you don't notice this is because the air under your hand pushes with the same force as it does from above. And the air presses on your head with a force of 270 kilograms, but it does not flatten you, because there is air inside your body that balances the pressure of the outside air.

The higher you climb (for example, to the top of a mountain), the less air above you, the less pressure. At an altitude of 6000 meters, the pressure is approximately 0,4 kilograms per square centimeter. At an altitude of 3000 meters - 0,7 kilograms per square centimeter. If you could go up to a height of 100 kilometers, you would find that there is almost no pressure.

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