Are We Standing on a Quadrillion Tons of Diamonds? [Video]

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There may be a quadrillion lots of diamonds 100 miles listed below Earth’s surface area. But the farthest we’ve taken a trip is 7 miles down, so how could we understand that?

Video Transcript:

There’s obviously a quadrillion lots of diamonds 100 miles listed below Earth’s surface area. But we’ve never ever been that far down, so how do we understand there are diamonds there?

We should actually begin by asking how do we understand what’s numerous miles listed below earth’s surface area in the very first location?

We mainly understand due to the fact that of seismic waves, which are brought on by the motion or vibration of the ground in action to forces that are placed on it, state by an earthquake or a nuclear surge. It’s like how jello in a bowl reacts when I do this.

There are 3 significant kinds of seismic waves, main waves, secondary waves, and surface area waves. P and S waves take a trip through the earth and the speed and instructions that they relocate informs us a lot about the various products that are hundreds or countless miles below us.

P waves take a trip the fastest, about 4 miles per second. So they’re gotten by seismometers initially. P waves move like an inch worm does, squeezing and broadening as they take a trip. And they move quicker through denser, stiff product like rock and metal, however they decrease in liquid.

Scientists understood that as soon as P-waves were reaching a particular depth they were decreasing and after that were somewhat deflected as they made their method to the opposite of our world, developing what’s called a “P-wave shadow zone”– a location on the side of the Earth opposite the earthquake, where no P-waves might reach.

Later, geophysicist Inge Lehmann assumed that there was a liquid zone sandwiched in between 2 rocky layers, which we now call Earth’s mantle and inner core. The liquid layer is Earth’s external core.

The method S waves move likewise suggests a liquid external core. They had to do with half as quick as P waves and they relocate an up and down or side to side movement, altering fit, depending upon the product they move through. Just like P waves, S waves move through various solids at various speeds. And the speed all depends upon how stiff the product is.

Unlike P waves, they can’t move through liquid. So they vanish at the mantle core limit and they do not appear in this shadow zone once again, suggesting a liquid layer listed below a strong one.

So what does this pertain to diamonds? Well, scientists understood that about a hundred miles below Earth’s continents in the upper mantle, seismic waves gain ground. Remember seismic waves move fastest through denser, more stiff product, however the scientists didn’t understand what that product might be.

Past seismic wave research studies, and a couple other findings revealed that Earth’s upper mantle was mainly made from a rock called peridotite, however even the most stiff peridotite would not trigger seismic waves to accelerate. But even the most stiff peridotites would not trigger seismic waves to accelerate as much as the scientists were seeing. There needed to be something else in there too.

So the scientists checked a lot of various rock and mineral mixes
to see if any of them might make seismic waves accelerate that much. And the one product they discovered would do it was diamonds, not simply a couple of diamonds about
a quadrillion lots of diamonds embedded in incredibly stiff rocks like eclogites.

So what is it about diamonds that makes them stiff enough for seismic waves to visibly accelerate?

Diamonds are structured plans of carbon atoms where each carbon atom is covalently bonded to 4 other carbon atoms. This is what makes them among the hardest most difficult compounds in the world.

I imply, diamond is utilized to drill through stone, ceramic and bone, and just diamond can be utilized to polish diamond.

Diamonds type when carbon atoms are put under extreme heat and pressure, and Earth’s mantle has temperature levels over a thousand degrees Celsius and pressures around 50,000 times that in the world surface area.

So finding diamonds there wasn’t a shock, however a quadrillion heaps worth certainly was. That’s a great deal of shimmer.

So how sure are we that that much bling is below our feet?

The quadrillion lots of diamonds hypothesis is mainly based upon seismic information. So some diamond and geochemistry scientists are still hesitant.

One factor is that throughout volcanic eruptions, when rock from the mantle is raised to the surface area by lava scientists typically just discover actually percentages of diamond compared to the quantity of rock. I’m talking less than 0.01%.

And other work has actually revealed that the quantity of carbon and eclogites those incredibly stiff rocks that I pointed out earlier can actually differ from around 0.0003% to around 14% with many having less than 1% diamond.

And you ‘d require around 3% diamond to get that quadrillion heaps.

There’s certainly a lot more work to be done, however that’s how science is by researching, we keep finding out more.