Rare rock studded with 30,000 diamonds found
New York: A professor from the University of Tennessee in the US is studying a rare rock covered with as many as 30,000 diamonds.
The diamonds may hold clues to the gem’s origins. The golf ball sized chunk of rock contains diamonds, each less than a millimetre in size (rendering them worthless), along with speckles of red and green garnet and other minerals.The rock was found in Russia’s Udachnaya diamond mine in northern Siberia.
“It is a wonder why this rock has more than 30,000 perfect, tiny octahedral diamonds – all 10 to 700 micron in size and none larger,” said earth and planetary sciences professor Larry Taylor.Taylor and his colleagues are examining the sparkly chunk using a giant X-ray machine.They also beamed electrons at the materials inside the diamonds to study the chemicals trapped inside.This created two and three dimensional images which revealed abnormal carbon isotopes for this type of rock, indicating it was originally formed as part of the crust of the Earth, withdrawn by tectonic shifts and transformed into the shimmery rock we see today.Scientists believe that diamonds form some 100 miles deep in the Earth’s mantle and are carried to the surface by special volcanic eruptions.However, most mantle rocks crumble during this journey.This rock is one of only a few hundred recovered in which the diamonds are still in their original setting from within the Earth, Taylor said.The findings were presented at the American Geophysical Union’s annual conference in San Francisco in December and will be a part of the forthcoming special issue of Russian Geology and Geophysics this month. (IANS)
Oceans can last forever on super-Earths
Washington: A new research finds that oceans on super-Earths can last for billions of years. Super-Earths are planets up to five times the mass, or 1.5 times the size of Earth. When scientists consider whether a planet is in the habitable zone, they think about its distance from the Sun and its resultant surface temperature.
“However, they should also think about oceans, and look at super-Earths to find a good sailing or surfing destination,” said lead author Laura Schaefer from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). Earth maintains its oceans through planet-wide recycling. Schaefer used computer simulations to see if this recycling process was applicable to super-Earths. She found that planets two to four times the mass of Earth are even better at establishing and maintaining oceans than our Earth. The oceans of super-Earths would persist for at least 10 billion years. “This suggests that if you want to look for life, you should look at older super-Earths,” Schaefer added. Schaefer presented her findings at a press conference at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society Monday. (IANS)