The Mystery Of Earth's Diamond Elevators
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- Опубликовано: 24 авг 2024
- Diamonds are cool, but they form really far below the Earth's crust, and the main way they get to the surface(ish) is through rock formations called kimberlites. And these kimberlites are really rare and really weird. So let's talk about where we find them, why we find them, and what needs to happen for us to get more.
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Diamonds, while economically useful, are not the most exciting thing for us in geology when studying kimberlites.
The most interesting thing are mantle xenoliths, rocks that are carried out the mantle and onto the surface. They are a rare window into the minerals in the interior of the earth as they are expelled fast enough to avoid undergoing reverse metamorphism into lower metamorphic grade rocks.
Also, the source of kimberlited is usually in a solid form. It just liquifies as the pressured drops.
*Are you a geologist?*
@@VPCh. diamonds and garnets are very exciting when it comes down to mineralogists studying kimberlites! They’re the sole thing that holds onto deep earth minerals at near the pressure they were formed at. Super interesting varieties of included ice have been found inside diamonds as well as the most abundant mineral in the Earth that almost no one has seen, ringwoodite!
Fun fact: diamonds are relatively common, but we pay a high price for them due to artificial scarcity caused by the cartel that has a monopoly on their production.
everyone knows that
Also because most diamonds are small and crappy.
Diamonds can also be created artificially. The quality of these artificial diamonds have improved greatly in recent years. The whole diamonds as jewellery industry is a big scam
Thank you de beers
Also, MOST diamonds are not "jewelry quality." Which is to say, they're extremely hard, extremely useful for specific industrial applications, and of zero interest to the con artists who want you to spend two months' salary on a rock for your betrothed.
Back in the 1980's or '90's geologists discovered kimberlite pipes in Iron County, Michigan near Crystal Falls. My father owned some property there and we all joked about becoming rich. Alas, he said, we don't own the mineral rights to what's under that land. Anyway, it didn't matter because as far I know, no diamonds were ever found in Iron County--at least none with any commercial value. However, given the volcanic origin of the western Upper Peninsula and the fact that it was part of the failed Mid-Continent Rift, it makes sense that geologists would be looking for kimberlite and other minerals there.
I'm a geologist at a mine. Even if he didn't own mineral rights, he could still sell his property for a lot if they were found there.
Mineral claims only give access to underground. If they want to have surface infrastructure, like building an open pit mine, they will need to buy the land.
@@VPCh. That's what he said as well, that they might own the mineral rights but they would have to compensate him for anything they did to the land. Now since the land in question was a wetland, protected by Michigan law, that could complicate things. Don't know where your mine is located, but in Michigan you don't mess with wetlands. A Baraga County couple found that out back in the '90's. They wanted to make some improvements to their land and they thought that they had all the permits in order so they went ahead and did the work. Well--turns out there was an i left undotted and a t left uncrossed because the next thing this couple knew, they were peacefully watching TV one night when all of a sudden their house was surrounded by a SWAT team and they were both hauled off to jail. It didn't matter that what they did to the wetland left it in better shape than before, they didn't finish jumping through all the required hoops and that was all that was needed to arrest these two apparently highly dangerous senior citizens. It was a widely publicized case and the Department of Natural Resources caught a lot of flack about how they handled it especially about the SWAT team. I was sure glad when Dad sold the land, diamonds or not, that was not something I wanted to deal with.
@theresemalmberg955 Yeah, wetlands are a huge pain to deal with. Our deposit has a lot of wetlands in the area and we are having to spend several years doing environmental assessments and mitigation prior to starting mining here.
It's a high enough grade deposit that we are able to mine it, even with the wetland having to be cleared, but it makes our lives a lot more complex.
The ultimate plan is to build a new wetland next to it, and then slowly clear the current one and redirect the life in it and the streams going through it into the new one. Then, after closing we will be able to merge them and create the old one on the filled in minesite again.
Nicely done. To so clearly lay out such a complexly interacting set of elements without being either condescending or overly simplistic is a remarkable achievement in technical/scientific communication.
Your global map of kimberlites omits the ones in South Africa. It seems to point to an insert image which never made it to your screen. At 0:24
I live a couple miles from the Kimberlite Tube between Sawmill, AZ and Navajo, NM. It is my understanding that it contains Garnets rather than Diamonds. It is supposedly the largest Kimberlite Tube in the world, almost two miles in diameter. On google maps it identified as Beull Park. It is on the Navajo Reservation and isn’t accessible to the public. There is a road along the South edge of the tube that goes up the South East side of the tube. This section is above the tube and provides a reasonable view of the tube. I have taken photos of the tube. It is quite an interesting place to see. Most people out here don’t know what it is.
4:30 I think the continent flexing after the breakup opens cracks allowing intrusion of deep magma and starting the feedback loop of a kimberlite supporting
I have a nice sized hunk of kimberlite that I found in Colorado. No diamonds though!
Maybe the diamonds are in the middle, like raisins in a biscuit that are in the middle, so you can't see them.
Good coverage of the topic though it might be worth mentioning that Kimberlite pipe eruptions have cousin called Lamproites which occur in somewhat younger continental crust. Kimberlites are generally found in ancient Archean aged crust while Lamproites are found in younger but still ancient Proterozoic aged crust.
Excellent Episode!
I had a vague memory of kimberlites in canada having a clear time-spatial trajectory where they are found and this explains it beautifully!
It's also pretty exciting that the probability of humanity observing another kimberlite eruption isn't zero!
Great presentation, Savanah! I wanna find kimberlite, not for the diamonds but all the other ancient rock!
I CAN HAS TEH DIAMONDZ DEN?
6:00 - Ooh, so it's the original lava lamp!
It is truly staggering how much our species has learned in the last 2 centuries and that rate of learning and sharing knowledge is accelerating exponentially (subject to local 'conditions)'.
Buckle up kids!
Your map doesn't show the diamond mine in Arkansas. The only place in the world where you can pay an entry fee and keep all the diamonds you dig up. The largest of which is the Uncle Sam diamond in the Smithsonian.
Yeah but note that here she focused on Kimberlite pipe eruptions rather than the larger volcanic pipe eruptions.
Crater of Diamonds and the other 6 privately owned diamond bearing volcanic pipe intrusions in Arkansas are found in Lamproite pipe eruption craters. Lamproites don't get the same level of attention by miners since it is rarer for them to bear diamonds.
The key distinction between Lamproites and Kimberlites outside of their chemical differences appears to be the age of the craton they erupted through, Kimberlites erupt through older Archean eon aged (2.4+ Ga) crust while Lamproites erupt through younger(but still ancient) Proterozoic aged (~1+ Ga) crust. So the chemistry differences probably have to do with the chemistry of the crust itself and may or may not arise as a consequence of whether they formed before or after/during the initiation of plate tectonics as we know it. Archean aged crust is apparently quite weird in terms of geological formations which look nothing like that of more recent geologic features which began to appear starting around 2.4 Ga.
I have a suspicion the reasons these select few Lamproite pipes are Diamond bearing unlike most probably has to do with the Ouachita mountains overthickening the crust in the region possibly providing the pressure needed for diamonds which younger crust is less likely to have been subjected to.
Would you like Cratons on your space salad?
Savannah's one of my favorite hosts! They always have the cutest clothes 🥰
the real diamond here is this gem of a beauty telling us about elevators
You didn't answer the most important question of all... where can I get that jumper?
your right where can we get that jumper?
In any cliche, pretentious millennial store
@@thecorruptversion Well you certainly sound delightful.
@@MistaDobalinaMistaBobDobalina that keeps me up at night, if I sound delightful or not to a bunch of strangers online
@@thecorruptversion thats what an undelightful person would say
Compliments to the presenter. Really well done.
🔃 *Excellent presentation on convection surrounding asthenosphere and continental drift.* Thanks for producing such well written content and the excellent visual aids. I like this theory by Gernon, T.M., Jones, S.M., Trune, S. et al. and look forward to hearing more down the road. _Keep up the great work!_ 👏
Thank you Savannah!
Wow, that was a GOOD episode!
Love your channel ❤ thank you for facilitating my life long self education, for bringing knowledge to the world, for the fascinating topics you feature. All your narrators are awesome but you are my favorite.
Cool now i have to worry about an eruption under my solid continent lol
If one of these were to happen nowadays the earth's axis might actually shift as every geologist on the planet rushes to be there and watch.
4:46 It's great that they filled in some of the holes in the mantle plume theory, but who's going to fill in all these holes in the crust?
God's goodness.
The kimberlites
Great video thank you❤
Very interesting!
0:25 There's a bit of an issue with South Africa in terms of how you presented this map in this video at this point. I suspect that the universal tech advice "try scrolling down" might apply.
Fascinating.
Intriguing, even.
That background really calms my heartburn! Looks like Nexium 😂
okay, off topic, but WHERE did they get that sweatshirt?! I want one. Haha!
Ikr!
Reverse search the image on the internet and you might find an online listing
Huh, that's super interesting! Thanks for the video.
I'm sorry, my brain won't let it go.
There are four cats and not one of them are playing with the mouse!? 🤨
Loved this episode ❤
So many rock videos lately.
Don't take them for granite
Rocks are awesome!
@@MaekarManastorm good one 😆
Can you blame them? They rock!
@@williammatthews7735 another good response 😄
Cool! Sinkholes...but with lava!
It’s like we all live atop the soup skin of a spherical lava lamp. Pity we still squabble so much about it.
Hi Savannah!
Soo, really slow lavalamp trigger fast lava cannon. Got it.
I had never heard of this, crazy to think of fast beam like lava eruptions with gemstones in them, wild
Shiny charcoal
I live in Kimberley.
interesting video
interesting. thanks
I've been there in Kimberly SA. Visited the Big Hole.
Fun fact: the "diamond cut" shape was created to hide the flaws in most diamonds!
🤣
It's where the aliens from war of the world's popped out, duh
so you're saying there are new kimberlite pipes waiting to form in the future (theoretically)?
Wouldn’t it be possible that it takes 30 million years to build pressure, within the stable mantle?
Liquid. Hot. Mag. Ma.
Hot? It isn't magma if it is not.
😂😂😂
Yeah, Baby!!
lol…my line is from Dr. Evil…
Yours reads like Dr. Seuss
It's dragons down there doing this business. Fire caves full of fire seas and fire dragons. I kid you not! 🔥🔥🔥
I'm feeling dumb, but if those convection cycles take a million years to move 20km, and the kimberlite eruptions happen about 30 million years after the split, doesn't that mean they would only be about 600km inland from the fault line? That doesn't seem like it would be in the middle of these plates.
My guess is they forgot to say "on average"
Kimberlite was named after my ex, Kimberly.
Also hot and unstable!
So...how extremely bad would it be to be anywhere near one of these eruptions? Would there be any warning? What effect could they have had on the global climate?
Pretty bad, apparently. Some concern has been expressed that a kimberlite eruption could be mistaken for a nuclear explosion, at least initially.
Hi Savvy!!❤
Leeloo: bada big boom!
I've been to Kimberley😃
Don't tell Zuckerberg about Katonic Keels!
I only speak in freedom units, how many giraffes/second in 200 meters/second.
At least 3
I know this is a joke, but, 40 (depending on your giraffes of course)
Or the Electric Universe Theory , Plasma Channels. Heat Pressure without all the made up stuff.
Magma diarrhea. Been there.
Telluride currents cause these. Think of HUMUNGIS Lightning
🎉
🤯
Personally, I think 30 million years might be a bit early to show up to a party.
Of course, you want to be fashionably late-60 million years at least!
hi
Go away
@@MaekarManastorm Milhouse.
So we dont mine into the Dimond layer and have free Dimonds forever 😂
That would be because the diamond layer is 100kms below the surface, and the deepest we've been able to mine so far is 4kms
I'm sorry, but I just can't stop looking at that shirt...
The mines are empty of ores ... Oo
Why mine for them when we can just make all we want?
Why when I put the playback speed at 1.5x it sounds like Borderlands 2's Claptrap?
There like a pimple.
My favorite lesbian youtuber!!!!
This new set, camera framing, and lighting are weird
Sausages
Green rock? =3
Olivine. Ie, olive-coloured.
@@thekaxmax 💚🟢
YOUR MOTHER AND I FOUND SOME KIMBERLITES LAST NIGHT
Diamonds are over rated. I think a crude oil ring would look just as nice.
Please stop perpetuating the myth that Diamonds have value. It’s a scam, I can buy a 100k machine and make all the diamonds I want..
" I can buy a 100k machine and make all the diamonds I want.." - not large ones. Making micro-diamonds by shock is not going to get you a gem for trade.
And they have value even if you make them. There are people that rather have value for “synthetic” diamonds to avoid high cost, and also scientist or industries that will buy you at market balue
@@TheDanEdwards false, diamonds the size of a quarter. And like 9 at a time, ruclips.net/video/uE_Qnsh1_2A/видео.htmlsi=6pEP68tx2NhR3jsq
The combination of ignorance and confidence is quite amusing. Let's see you make a diamond big enough for a modest wedding ring with your 100k machine 😂 diamond in general is cheap, big diamonds for jewelry is valuable.
...I don't think you understand what value means...
a.i,b.s...
Where do you guys get this numbers? You’re talking about millions of years while humanity wasn’t even alive back then? Who’s keeping track of this numbers?
who you calling a craton? :(
You’re the reason I skip videos on this channel.
Randomly, I found one of these in satellite imagery when I was just roaming around Siberia on Google Earth one day and was like in a deep dive about this place for days afterward.
Since I recently discovered the secret to immortality and have not told anyone, I'll be the richest carbon clump to ever exist very soon.
These are not facts These are guesses You are not Sure Are you
That's how science works. It's constantly updating itself. This is just our current understanding based on all the physical and mathmatical evidence we currently have avalible
So many people interested in science, yet can't spell.
not everyone is fit to be a presenter, regardless of how smart they are. This applies to myself too, don't take it personally
it would be nice to stop perpetuating that diamonds are expensive, they are one of the most common gems found on earth, rubies and sapphires and emeralds are way more expensive and rare than diamonds.
Using words like weird and odd when talking about science in general is odd
It isn't how you'd write it in a paper, sure, but lots of science starts with someone thinking "that's weird, why does that happen?"!
Why do people pay so much for diamonds?
advertising
Because all the diamond companies are owned by a single corporation and your only three options are payong whatever price they tell you to pay, buy a man-made diamond, or dont but a diamond
Diamonds are not rare and their value was manufactured by the diamond industry itself to make more money. Do some research people.
They've covered it elsewhere.
Low quality diamonds aren't rare. High quality is rare and because of that it's reflected in the price. Don't like it? Don't buy it.
@@00dfm00 also not true, and I wont
@@00dfm00 high quality diamonds are rare, but not that rare. And taking into account that the diamond mining industry works like the petrol one, where they control the amount of production to force prices up, and the effort they put on marking the natural diamonds as better than the artificially made, I'd say and quite sure that even high quality diamonds are super overpriced. But feel free to buy them if you fancy then
10,000 years ago?! Not 10,200 years ago...maybe?! LmMFaO!!! ;) :P :o)
Yes, that's how averages work. You should have learned this in middle school
@@seivernoname-tz9uh I didn't though. I was too busy teaching myself precalc, whilst, simultaneously, taking Calc I, so that I could go on to get A's, in Calc I-III! My POINT was that I was wonderin' if it (the wild very specific volcanic eruption type that I am first learnin' about today) had anything to do with/any correlation with Younger-Dryas (sp?), and ITS Great Flood..? Not anything TO DO with either ACTUAL NUMBER -- 10,000/10,200 -- in, or OF THEMSELVES... LmMFaO! ;) :P :o)
Nice, just casually talking about blood diamonds and "getting rich" when in reality, the people were exploited while a few got rich under that capitalist nightmare of a system. We get treated better but the same holds true even here in america.
Naught but cows, the lot of us.
Look at ants, bees and so on. And remember that resources not endless, but too many people don't want to optimize their waste. Real price of fuel like gasoline must be much more then now. Construction at the expense of the budget must be less, and so on (corruption).
Read "Growth" by Smil, "Darwin's Cathedral" by Wilson (short in russian - "Эволюция кооперации и альтруизма" Марков) and maybe "The Language of God" by Collins (biologist).
And you failed to mark Kimberley on your map😅🇿🇦
😢
Good morning this ain’t Vietnam still, people lose legs, arms, for real.
Much of what makes earth Eunice even tech tonic plates are caused created by life not other way around
Magma isn't life
What's your peer-reviewed evidence?
Is this even English? I'm concerned the writer is having a stroke.
@@TrueWolves Earth is Eunice, and the tonic plates are tech - what's unclear about that? 🤣
I asked a question, buddy. What's your peer-reviewed evidence?
SAVANNAH I NEED A LINK TO YOUR SWEATER
'Surface-ish' You guys come up with some wacky new words.
Language isn’t a fixed rule. Changes over time and culture morph words and meanings. Even if words were stagnant and never changing, meaning still would be dependent on the individual based on perspective and interpretation. For example, the definition of Love. If you understand the intent behind the words, no need to try to correct. Because words are trying to convey an idea, and they did their job.
@@KyleTheShaman Languages can evolve and also de-evolve over time. Scientists use Latin because as a dead language it never changes.