Rare Rock Has Astounding 30,000 Diamonds Embedded Within It

Scientists have discovered a rare rock with not ten, not twenty, not thirty--but 30,000 diamonds embedded within it. Now, they're studying this unusual find in order to find clues as to the gem's origins.

The chunk of rock is about the size of a golf ball, and contains 30,000 diamonds that are each less than a millimeter in size. In addition, there are speckles of red and green garnet in addition to other minerals within the rock. It was discovered in Russia's Udachnaya diamond mine in northern Siberia.

Currently, the scientists believe that diamonds form about 100 miles deep within the Earth's mantle, and are carried to the surface by certain volcanic eruptions. Yet most mantle rocks crumble during this journey.

"It is a wonder why this rock has more than 30,000 perfect teeny tiny octahedral diamonds-all 10 to 700 micron in size and none larger," said Larry Taylor, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Diamonds never nucleate so homogeneously as this. Normally, they do so in only a few selective places and grow larger. It's like they didn't have time to coalesce into larger crystals."

After examining with the rock with the help of an X-ray machine, the researchers discovered that the diamonds were formed at higher-than-normal temperatures over longer-than-normal times. The scientists also found abnormal carbon isotopes for this type of rock, indicating that it was originally formed as part of the crust of the Earth, withdrawn by tectonic shifts and then transformed into the rock we see today.

"These are all new and exciting results, demonstrating evidences for the birth mechanism of diamonds in this rock and diamonds in general," said Taylor.

The findings are to be published in the journal Russian Geology and Geophysics.

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