A recent study published in Nature examines how diamonds found deep within the Earth could help scientists better understand the formation and evolution of the ancient supercontinent, Gondwana, which existed in its full-form approximately 600 million years ago and began to break apart approximately 180 million years ago. This study was conducted by an international team of researchers and holds the potential to help scientists better understand the processes behind the formation and evolution of supercontinents in both the past and future.
For the study, the researchers conducted a series of laboratory experiments on a suite of diamonds that originated from between 300 and 700 kilometers (186 miles to 435 miles) deep in the Earth and collected throughout the Collier 4 kimberlite pipe, which is part of the Juina Kimberlite Field in Brazil. The diamonds were not sampled directly from the interior of the Earth, as the deepest artificial hole on Earth is only 12.2 km (7.6 mi). Instead, these diamonds came from a volcanic eruption, which expels the contents of the Earth’s interior which researchers use for scientific studies.
Diamonds that were collected from Collier-4 as part of the Juina Kimberlite Field in Brazil. (Credit: Sarah Milne, University of Alberta)
Through analyses of these diamonds, the researchers were able to determine the ages of the diamonds as being between 450 to 650 million years old, along with determining that they were uplifted within the interior of the Earth approximately 300 million years ago when Gondwana started to break apart.
“By revealing the geological processes that contributed to Gondwana’s growth, scientists can better understand the forces that shaped Earth’s history and phenomenon of continental stability, which is—of course—fundamental to the eventual success of life on our planet,” said Dr. Michael Walter, who is an experimental petrologist with the Carnegie Institution of Science and a co-author on the study.
What new discoveries will researchers make about the ancient supercontinent, Gondwana, and other past supercontinents in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: Nature, EurekAlert!, Britannica, Mindat.org, Carnegie Science
