A more plausible explanation for the diamonds is that the impacting
asteroid was carbonaceous and the impact horizon reached the
temperatures necessary for diamond formation. I also see little note
here of actual gem quality diamonds which is another reason to leave
the deposit undisturbed all this time.
Whatever concerns that may have existed regarding diamond supply have
now been put to rest. It also goes without saying that similar
impacts will have similar results if my conjecture holds true. Thus
the earth and the solar system could be awash in diamonds.
We will be seeing more technical details, but it is there and its
supply will begin to enter the market.
Russia reveals
shiny state secret: It's awash in diamonds
'Trillions of carats'
lie below a 35-million-year-old, 62-mile diameter asteroid crater in
eastern Siberia known as Popigai Astroblem. The Russians have known
about the site since the 1970s.
By Fred
Weir | Christian Science Monitor – Mon, 17 Sep,
2012
Russia has just
declassified news that will shake world gem markets to their core:
the discovery of a vast new diamond field containing "trillions
of carats," enough to supply global markets for another 3,000
years.
The Soviets
discovered the bonanza back in the 1970s beneath a
35-million-year-old, 62-mile diameter asteroid crater in eastern
Siberia known as Popigai Astroblem.
They decided to keep
it secret, and not to exploit it, apparently because the USSR's
huge diamond operations at Mirny, in Yakutia, were already
producing immense profits in what was then a tightly controlled
world market.
The Soviets were
also producing a range of artificial diamonds for industry, into
which they had invested heavily.
The veil of secrecy
was finally lifted over the weekend, and Moscow permitted
scientists from the nearby Novosibirsk Institute of Geology and
Mineralogy to talk about it with Russian journalists.
According to the
official news agency, ITAR-Tass, the diamonds at Popigai are
"twice as hard" as the usual gemstones, making them ideal
for industrial and scientific uses.
The institute's
director, Nikolai Pokhilenko, told the agency that news of what's
in the new field could be enough to "overturn" global
diamond markets.
"The resources
of super-hard diamonds contained in rocks of the Popigai
crypto-explosion structure, are by a factor of ten bigger than the
world's all known reserves," Mr. Pokhilenko said. "We are
speaking about trillions of carats. By comparison, present-day
known reserves in Yakutia are estimated at one billion carats."
The type of stones
at Popigai are known as "impact diamonds," which
theoretically result when something like a meteor plows into an
existing diamond deposit at high velocity. The Russians say most
such diamonds found in the past have been "space diamonds"
of extraterrestrial origin found in meteor craters.
They claim the
Popigai site is unique in the world, thus making Russia the
monopoly proprietor of a resource that's likely to become
increasingly important in high-precision scientific and industrial
processes.
"The value of
impact diamonds is added by their unusual abrasive features and
large grain size," Pokhilenko told Tass. "This expands
significantly the scope of their industrial use and makes them more
valuable for industrial purposes."
Russian scientists
say the news is likely to change the shape of global diamond
markets, although the main customers for the super-hard gems will
probably be big corporations and scientific institutes.
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