Sea water - The key to forming the most abundant diamond mines in the world

Researchers have discovered the key to forming some of the world's most abundant diamond mines. This discovery may pave the way for creating more precious gems.

Explain the cause of forming diamond mines

A group of scientists from Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom discovered that some of the richest diamond mines in Canada's Northwest Territories were formed because ancient seawater flowed into the deepest bottom of the continent.

From low-quality, high-quality diamond-coated diamonds, researchers have found the key to forming them: seawater.(Photo: Daily Mail)

The finding further highlights the role of plate tectonics in "recycling" surface materials in the deepest parts of the Earth, below the oceans . The results are based on a groundbreaking discovery last year by the University of Alberta (Canada), about the amount of water locked up more than 500km underground.

" The results of the new study clearly show that ocean water in this case has dropped to a slightly shallower but still very deep area of ​​the Earth. From here, sea salt water is pumped into the bottom of the underlying substrate. the Northwest Territories and made diamonds, ' explains researcher Graham Pearson.

The Graham Pearson area is home to many high quality diamond mines as well as a low-quality diamond mine, which is covered with a cloudy material, with large reserves. All diamonds are made of fluids, but only the gems possess a less attractive shell (low-quality diamonds) that contain traces of originating, valuable fluids to the department. learn.

" The fluids in the coating are rich in sodium, potassium and chlorine. It is very difficult to obtain them from the mantin layer (between the Earth's crust and the nucleus) of our planet. This is a big mystery. Where did they come from? In the end, we could point out that most likely they came from seawater, which is essentially a sodium chloride solution, " Pearson said.

According to Pearson, seawater is likely to be trapped in an Earth's oceanic crust beneath North America several hundred million years ago. The interaction between salty seawater and weathered rocks overlaps, creating the chemical diversity of crystalline fluids into diamonds. The diamonds are then brought back to the surface of the Earth through a type of magma rock erupted by volcanoes , called kimberlite.

Although high-quality diamonds are often conceived to be formed 3 to 3.5 billion years ago, fluids rich in lower quality diamonds seem to be a few hundred million years old, much younger. in Earth's geological time.

A hypothesis to explain the difference in diamond age is that two types of diamonds are actually formed in similar processes and over time, fluid-rich stones will transform into diamonds. Pearson and his colleagues are continuing to study the fluids found in diamonds to test this hypothesis.