“This shows that diamond is not perhaps this exotic mineral, but on the [geological] scale of things, it’s relatively common,” said Ulrich Faul, a research scientist in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences. The diamonds are in underground rock formations called cratons, which are shaped like inverted mountains, lie at the center of the planet’s tectonic plates, and can stretch up to 322 kilometers (200 miles) into the Earth. In other words, if at this time the average cost of a diamond engagement ring is about $6,000, the value of diamonds would be very different if humans had better access to the subterranean world. Or, telling truth, “diamond is not a particularly rare mineral,”says Roberta Rudnick, Ph.D., an earth science professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Cratons on the world’s map
The diamonds are 90 to 150 miles below the Earth’s surface. There is at least 1,000 times more diamond in the cratons than scientists had previously estimated. we’re probably not going to get access to these diamonds with a drill anytime soon. The deepest hole ever drilled is about 7.5 miles deep, and these diamonds are more than 10 times deeper.
