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It’s also the
oldest; it’s come from deeper in the Earth than any other; and it’s the
rock that has literally been through Hell…
Diamonds forms
deep beneath our feet where the pressure is 100,000 times higher than the
pressure of air around us, and the temperature is around 1000C.
Today, the
bottoms of the oldest continents still carry their ancient load of
gemstones. The roots of Australia, Canada and southern Africa are studded
with a richness of diamonds that surpasses imagination.
Fortunately for diamond-lovers and geologists alike, some
of these riches have been blasted to the surface, in unique kind of
eruption that has its roots far deeper than any conventional
volcano.
The diamond mines of South Africa – and now Australia –
provide an invaluable commodity not only to jewellers and industry, but
also to geologists. The diamonds give us a unique insight far into the
Earth, not just in the form of the gem itself, but because some diamonds
carry tiny fragments of unusual rocks with them, our only samples of the
planet from so deep beneath our feet.
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