Where Do Diamonds Come From?

MessageToEagle.com – Diamonds do not come from coal. The diamonds we find today were formed millions of years ago in molten rock, more than 160 km below the Earth’s surface. They were carried to the surface in rising magma (molten rock) by volcanic activity.

Coal is a rock that is formed by sediment, and diamonds are formed through igneous sources. Most diamonds that have been dated are much older than coal.

It is said that diamonds were formed about 1–3 billion years ago, that’s way earlier than any known record of even the Earth’s first land plants let alone coal. Coal, known as a fossil fuel is formed from the dead remains of vegetation like trees, ferns and other plants and life.

The formation of coal takes millions of years and can be traced back to 300 to 400 million years ago, but not a billion years.
Natural diamonds – the hardest substance known to man-  require extremely high temperatures (ranging from 900 to 1300 C) and pressure that exists only at depths of 87 to 120 miles (140 to 190 kilometers) in the Earth’s mantle to form.

Diamonds are made up of one single element- Carbon.

Later, the diamond crystals are transported to the surface during deep-source volcanic eruptions in the magma; when this magma cools, it forms igneous rocks known as kimberlites (named after the diamond-bearing region of Kimberly, South Africa where these rocks were first identified) and lamproites, used as an indicator that diamonds may be found in that area.

The most prominent kimberlites are located in South Africa and Central Africa which roughly contributes for 49% of the natural diamonds mined in the World.

At the most, coal can change its chemical composition and transform into its nearly purest form – namely graphit – but NOT diamond.

The conversion of coal into diamond is almost impossible due to its impurities and the fact that coal is rarely buried to depths greater than two miles (3.2 kilometers), which is not enough to the formation of diamonds.

How diamonds are formed is actually still only guessing, because it is not possible to directly
sample the part of Earth, in which they are formed.

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