Diamonds are a PILATUS’ best friends
Diamonds larger than a thousand carats are rare, valuable and fascinating. It now appears it is not only their size but also their origin that makes massive diamonds extraordinary. A recent publication in Science identifies inclusions in large diamonds as metallic phases and suggests that these diamonds grew from liquid metal in Earth’s mantle (Smith et al.). The research verifies predictions that Earth has highly reducing deep mantle regions. The redox state of the convecting mantle is a key unknown in Earth’s evolutionary history. A group of researchers around Evan Smith from the Gemological
