What is Bryson Burke up to right now and what are the latest results?

The Short Version

The Earth's Crustal Thickness

The Earth's Mantle

Thermodynamic Influences

Pressure Gradient

Making a Diamond in the Earth

Kimberlitic Bodies as Vehicles to the Surface

Artificial Diamonds

Mostly Myth - They came from Meteorites

 

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How and where are diamonds formed?
Diamonds form between 120-200 kms or 75-120 miles below the earth's surface. According to geologists the first delivery of diamonds was somewhere around 2.5 billion years ago and the most recent was 45 million years ago. That is a long time, my friend! According to science , the carbon that makes diamonds, comes from the melting of pre-existing rocks in the Earth's upper mantle. There is an abundance of carbon atoms in the mantle. Temperature changes in the upper mantle forces the carbon atoms to go deeper where it melts and finally becomes new rock, when the temperature reduces. If other conditions like pressure and chemistry is right then the carbon atoms in the melting crustal rock bond to build diamond crystals.
There is no guarantee that these carbon atoms will turn into diamonds. If the temperature rises or the pressure drops then the diamond crystals may melt partially or totally dissolve. Even if they do form, it takes thousands of years for those diamonds to come anywhere near the surface.

 

 

Layer Density
(g/cm³ ) 		P-wave velocity
(km/sec)
Continental crust 2.6 - 2.8 6
Oceanic crust 3.5 7
Mohorovicic discontinuity (Moho)
Mantle 4.5 - 10 8 - 12
Gutenberg discontinuity
Core (average) 12 -
Outer core
(liquid) 		- 8 - 10
Inner core
(solid) 		13.5 11 - 12

 

Geothermal gradient in crust is about 25 ° C/ km (75 ° F/mile)
In diamond mines, at 11,788 ft deep, temperature is about 90 ° F. Goto Temperature Structure of the Earth

 

To begin, you have to visualize the structure of the Earth's crust, mantle and core. Click here for a visual presentation. You will need the free Flash Plug-in to view this.

 

 

More Detail on the Formation of Diamonds - Thermodynamics

Making Diamonds and Getting them to the Surface

Diamonds are brought to the surface from the mantle in a rare type of magma called kimberlite and erupted at a rare type of volcanic vent called a diatreme or pipe. Kimberlite is a gas-rich, potassic ultramafic igneous rock that contains the minerals olivine, phlogopite, diopside, serpentine, calcite, and minor amounts of apatite, magnetite, chromite, garnet, diamond, and other upper mantle minerals. Upper mantle xenoliths are found in some kimberlite and provide clues to the magma's origin. The source depth for kimberlite magmas is estimated at 200 km, more than twice as deep as the source region for most magmas. At a depth of 200 km the pressure is 60,000 times greater than the surface and the temperature is about 1500 C. Kimberlite magmas are rich in carbon dioxide and water which brings the magma quickly and violently to the surface. Most kimberlites occur as multiple intrusive events. Kimberlite was named for the rock associated with diamonds in Kimberley, South Africa.