Have you really thought about where the diamonds on diamond rings come from? Or better yet, has it ever crossed your mind how long it took for this precious gem to evolve and become the “tiny, brilliant, décor” that women have on their necks as an ornament? Can one ever imagine what it takes for this so-called “woman’s best friend” to finally exist and be one of the most sought-after possession one would wish to have?
The requirements for a diamond to form are one part “natural”, one part “scientific” and one part “laborious.” The process for this “precious and rare element” requires many long, tedious, and intricate stages. Not to mention that to have the most brilliant cut of a diamond, you will have to ask “mother nature” to “vomit” one and require a human hand to sculpt it such.
Geologists say that first diamonds reached the earth’s surface 2.5 billion years ago.
The formation of diamonds originates from the melting of prior existing rocks in the earth’s upper mantle, commonly, the carbon element. Not all carbon atoms become diamonds during the procedure of transformation. They either melt or totally dissolve when the temperature rises too high.
Diamond’s journey starts from the asthenosphere, the earth’s layer lying 75-125 miles below the crust. Diamonds come to the earth’s surface when volcanic activity forces it and other rock minerals to go upward through a massive explosion underneath. This explosion will then create an opening, known as the volcanic pipe. This pipe then becomes the “depository” of the diamond and other rock minerals that have been shot upward and have fallen back to the pipe by the volcanic explosion. Not all the diamonds in the pipe remain in it and become discovered by miners. Most of the deposits are washed away either by rock erosion or water splashes emitted during the volcanic activity.
With all the conditions that have to exist during the formation of diamonds, some diamonds come up differently. Diamonds usually form as rounded octahedral and twinned octahedral, depending on the conditions that they have been formed in. Because of the diamond’s crystal structure, diamonds normally have cubic arrangement of the atoms. With its varying ways of formation, diamonds have developed numerous facets, such as cube, octahedron, and tetrakis, hexahedron to name a few.
Diamonds are billions of years old which is part of their mystique and their charm. There’s only so many natural diamonds in the earth and when they are all gone there will be no more.