The oldest known diamond is believed to be over 3 billion years old, originating from deep within the Earth. This valuable gemstone has captivated us for centuries due to it’s remarkable beauty and exquisite clarity, making it truly one of a kind.
How long have diamonds existed? The geological processes that shape them occur billions of years ago. But it is not always possible to find a diamond from those early times. That is why this find is important. It is the oldest known diamond.
It was seen by Siberian scientists who are part of an international group. They were studying a diamond found in Yakutia in the Udachnaya volcanic vent. And they came to this conclusion. This could be the oldest diamond known to date. This was reported by the newspaper ‘Science in Siberia’.
Immense pressures
“The diamond found by us is perhaps the oldest of those studied to date.” This is what the scientists’ communiqué highlights. They add that the research carried out allows us to conclude that its age is about 3.6 billion years.
Academician Nikolai Pokhilenko is scientific director of the SS ACR Sobolev Institute of Geology and Mineralogy. He explained the process by which these diamonds come to the surface. It happens in volcanic chimneys. Often emerge diamonds formed at great depths. It is assumed that the diamond in question emerged under a temperature of 1,400º Celsius. It withstood a pressure of more than 5.5 gigapascals, at a depth of about 180 kilometers.
“The Udachnaya diamond is apparently the oldest. At least, among those that humans have been able to get their hands on and study to date,” he said.
Outcropping diamonds
Scientists also succeeded in proving something about the conditions of diamond formation. At that time they differed from those of crystal formation in our times. Temperatures and environmental pressure are very different. Therefore, the depths at which such processes take place vary.
The Udachnaya volcanic chimney is one of the most important diamond deposits in Russia. Geologists have been studying the diamonds found there since the late 1960s. They would have surfaced millions of years ago, rising from depths of up to 250 kilometers. And one of them is the oldest known diamond.
