Russian diamonds: Siberian meteorite crater said to hold trillions of carats
September 21, 2012
Artist’s impression of asteroid hitting Earth (Credit: Don Davis/NASA)
Russian scientists are claiming that a gigantic deposit of industrial diamonds found in a huge Siberian meteorite crater during Soviet times could revolutionize industry, Huffington Post reports.
The Siberian branch of Russian Academy of Sciences said that the Popigai crater in eastern Siberia contains “many trillions of carats” of “impact diamonds” — good for technological purposes, not for jewelry, and far exceeding the currently known global deposits of conventional diamonds.
Nikolai Pokhilenko, the head of the Geological and Mineralogical Institute in Novosibirsk, told RIA Novosti news agency Monday that the diamonds include other molecular forms of carbon. He said they could be twice as hard as conventional diamonds and therefore have superlative industrial qualities.
He said the minerals could lead to a “revolution” in various industries. “But they can’t upset a diamond market because it is shaped by diamonds for jewelry purposes.”
Pokhilenko said that the diamonds owe their unparalleled hardness to enormous pressure and high temperatures at the moment of explosion when a giant meteorite hit 35 million years ago, leaving a 100-kilometer (60-mile) crater.
Comments (17)
by Alison
Pictures and evidence or it never happened.
Why so gullible, planet Earth?
by Ed
Oh great, like Putin needs another source of revenue besides oil to remain President for Life.
by John Deere
Trillions of carrots? Free night vision.
by Eldon J. Bloedorn
Russian scientists “are claiming.” That is all we know. A secret this big is no secret to be kept a secret.
by Renzo Canepari
55 years ago Russian scientists went into Siberia for the first time. Diamonds were strewn around like pebbles. Also, somewhere in time, it seems to me that I heard that if the De Beers cartel went away, real diamonds would be cheaper than zircons.
by Bri
At the end of the movie Blood Diamond you see the pink diamond that everybody fought and died for in the film, being placed in a huge vault filled with diamonds. That’s what all the big resources companies try to do. Maintain the illusion of scarcity, not abundance.
by Bri
They wouldn’t be good for jewelry because they didn’t form the way clear diamonds form. Earth based diamonds form when volcanoes poke threw coal deposits. The carbon is actually dissolved in the magma. While the magma is in it’s fluid state the carbon atoms are attached to the forming crystals. They are deposited layer upon layer over a period of time. That is why they can have colors or imperfections. These are shock diamonds. They can even be pure black. Depending on how far they were formed from the actual impact site, they will have different characteristics. They probably cooled fairly quickly and may or maynot have formed regular crystalline shapes. I’d love to see more detailed geological info on the actual diamonds found at different distances and depths from the epicenter of impact.
by Chrispium
These diamonds are most likely also too small to be used for jewelry. They tend to stay under the size of a grain of sand.
by Bri
The evidence for a meteor impact above North America at the end of the last ice age are trillions of microscopic impact diamonds. They are super small. I’m not sure of their actual size but the documentary I saw on it said that there were more diamonds created in that event than in all the beaches in the world. That’s why I’d like to see some more geological evidence from the crater. It would be very interesting to see how the size and qualities change with depth and distance.
by Guillermo
Why can’t they be used for jewlery?
by Mr.X
Killer jewel-ring for spy’s, hard and sharp.
Delivers cutting-edge backhands.
by trakk
Most awesome substance in the universe :)
by GatorALLin
…so if I understand this correctly….. just having a giant meteor strike the earth and create a lot of heat is not the critical part…. it must either have the right mineral deposits inside the asteroid, or must hit the earth with the correct minerals to make this happen. Apparently this particular asteroid that hit this spot in Siberia 35 million years ago was found in 1970′s and kept a secret until now. The area this meteorite hit was rich in Graphite Deposits and thus why this magic combo has not been found at any of the hundreds of meteor craters that are this large.
by Aaron
Very cool! Will be interesting to see the differing molecular forms of carbon. Could help us fabricate even stronger materials when technology reaches that level.
by GatorALLin
….sounds like these diamonds are already 2x harder than anything else they have now…. it will be cool to hear what new applications they find for diamonds this hard. I would guess all cutting surfaces from home use to giant mining tools would last much longer, or at least be less expensive thanks to a find this huge. I found this link with some interesting details on what else they might do with them. http://www.antwerpfacetsonline.be/nc/articles/single/article/industrial-diamonds-provide-revolutionary-solutions/
by Luis Mesquita
Nothing is stronger than graphene and nano tubes so that’s the path industry should follow.
by Bri
Graphene , carbon nanotubes, and diamonds are all different states for carbon. Ray says’s in SN that, in theory nanotech will be able to make a pure carbon compound that can be as soft as graphite at one end and as hard as diamonds at the other. Diamonds are the hardest naturally occurring substance. Their are harder man made substances. For us to manufacture diamonds, we have to subject carbon to extremely high temperatures and pressures. These diamonds are reported in the article as being harder than other terrestrial diamonds. Who knows what we might find in asteroids. We might find basketball sized perfectly clear and formed diamonds out there.