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The most interesting part or me was that the diamond came from 600km below the earth's surface. Maybe this is common knowledge, not for me. It's pretty cool to
by version_five 5y ago
The most interesting part or me was that the diamond came from 600km below the earth's surface. Maybe this is common knowledge, not for me. It's pretty cool to think that we have access to such things. If we could dig down that far, would there be an abundance of diamonds?
- djdjfhsje33edh 5y agoThe article says the diamond formed at that depth, but I assume the rock rose to a higher depth before it was extracted. I believe the deepest depth to which we have drilled is on the order of 10 km.
- JshWright 5y agoThe Kola borehole, drilled by the Soviets, is the deepest we've ever drilled, at 12.2 km.
- kubafu 5y agoTo save you a search https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole
- franga2000 5y agoI've alway wondered why they never went deeper. Turns out the answer is in hindsight obvious, but very unsettling: > The unexpected decrease in density, the greater porosity, and the unexpectedly high temperatures caused the rock to behave somewhat like a plastic, making drilling nearly impossible.
- alan-crowe 5y agoWe could use the unexpectedly high temperatures as a heat source for geothermal energy. Make money selling the energy for ten, twenty years,... until the temperatures fall and the rock becomes rigid. Then drill another kilometer, funded from the geophysical exploration budget. Temperature too high again? Have a long pause to make a little money from geothermal energy.
- neurostimulant 5y agoGeothermal plants can trigger earthquakes [1], so it's probably unwise to build a lot more geothermal plants to meet global energy needs without addressing that risk first, especially near populated areas. [1] https://news.stanford.edu/2019/05/23/lessons-south-korea-solving-geothermals-earthquake-problem/ https://news.stanford.edu/2019/05/23/lessons-south-korea-sol...
- stavros 5y agoMy favorite thing about that hole is that we always imagine it to be human-sized or something, but it was as wide as a football or so.
- markdown 5y agoThere's an abundance of diamonds right here on the surface (or near it). Diamond supply is artificially constrained.
- Scarblac 5y agoAnd we can manufacture them cheaply.
- _nalply 5y agoThey were transported to the surface with eruptions ten to hundred millions of years ago. Google «Kimberlite».