Scientists stunned, baffled over rock embedded with 30,000 diamonds
Digital Reporter
Thursday, December 18, 2014, 4:53 PM - Scientists are baffled over a 30mm green and red rock embedded with 30,000 tiny diamonds -- a concentration that's 1 million times greater than normal.
The gems are too tiny to be used commercially, so the miners that discovered the rock donated it to the Russian Academy of Sciences, LiveScience reports.
Scientists scanned the rock with x-rays and found the diamonds measure 1mm and have an octahedral shape, which resembles two pyramids fused together at the base. The red and green hue comes from the presence of garnet, olivine and pyroxene.
Researchers presented their findings Monday at the American Geophysical Union's annual meeting.
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"The exciting thing for me is there are 30,000 itty-bitty, perfect octahedrons, and not one big diamond," geologist Larry Taylor from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville said, as quoted by LiveScience.
"It's like they formed instantaneously."
Scientists hope the discovery will provide new insight into Earth's geology.
"The associations of minerals will tell us something about the genesis of this rock, which is a strange one indeed," Taylor added.