MINING DIAMOND
Feb 17, 2022
3 minutes
diamond is essentially just carbon, one of the most common elements. But we usually find carbon compounded with other elements, and when pure carbon does occur on the Earth’s surface it takes the form of graphite. Making diamond requires much higher temperatures and pressures – those which are only found inside the Earth’s mantle at depths of a hundred miles or more. There may be lots of diamonds there – perhaps as much as a quadrillion tonnes – but they’re totally inaccessible to us.
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