The Universe is Entertaining

I realize that the value of diamond is artificially maintained through manipulation of the supply, and also the value of natural diamonds is falling because of the availability of lab-grown diamonds. I don’t care, since … quick check … yes, looks like zero of my net worth is tied up in the diamond market.

I mean, if someone handed me the Hope Diamond, I wouldn’t turn it down. I suppose I’d sell it back to the Smithsonian for a fraction of its estimated worth.

However, it looks like the Hope Diamond, plus all natural diamonds, plus all lab-grown diamonds, are merely a tiny grain of diamond compared to … get this … a layer of diamond ten miles thick below the surface of Mercury.

Mercury’s surface is scattered with graphite, an allotrope of carbon, indicating that the planet’s crust once floated atop a carbon-rich magma ocean. As this ocean cooled, lighter carbon materials floated upward, while denser carbon sank deeper into the planet. Under pressures exceeding 5.5 GPa and temperatures approaching 3,600°F, researchers showed that this submerged carbon could convert into diamond at Mercury’s core–mantle boundary.

This is just an entertaining note in the continual story of new discoveries about planetary science and astronomy.

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