September 2022

Scientists Discover Cannonball-sized Dinosaur Eggs Filled With Crystals

Scientists Discover Cannonball-sized Dinosaur Eggs Filled With Crystals

These could easily be mistaken for ordinary rocks or a strange type of ball, but they are actually dinosaur eggs from Qianshan, China. Image...

Alert Level Raised at New Zealand's Taupo Volcano for 1st Time

Earth News, Natural Disasters, volcano 9:15 PM

Alert Level Raised at New Zealand's Taupo Volcano for 1st Time

Photo: (George Novak/New Zealand Herald via AP) New Zealand volcano which caused the world's largest eruption of the past 5000 years is...

Rare Mystery Diamonds Came From Outer Space, Scientists Report

Diamonds, Gemstones., Researches 10:08 PM

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi46VSSwLrh3JSl-RTjvBJv-E3oKgjfHTLTMjmkNJ_Yp1L1xGqhSScGN8FMye3eJf1RPg55FEuJbRBAS65TKpA0n4k0CQggOCSvdEi5iohlrb_76m4jzs0eKHHt6oQEudnppxFwraCV3o4AekSG7yYHAUDYhIjJK51puFTsgUNlEK5omFiZw6ZxFp1l/s1200/Rare%20Mystery%20Diamonds%20Came%20From%20Outer%20Space,%20Scientists%20Report%20(1).jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Rare Mystery Diamonds Came From Outer Space, Scientists Report" border="0" data-original-height="716" data-original-width="1200" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi46VSSwLrh3JSl-RTjvBJv-E3oKgjfHTLTMjmkNJ_Yp1L1xGqhSScGN8FMye3eJf1RPg55FEuJbRBAS65TKpA0n4k0CQggOCSvdEi5iohlrb_76m4jzs0eKHHt6oQEudnppxFwraCV3o4AekSG7yYHAUDYhIjJK51puFTsgUNlEK5omFiZw6ZxFp1l/w640-h382/Rare%20Mystery%20Diamonds%20Came%20From%20Outer%20Space,%20Scientists%20Report%20(1).jpg" title="Rare Mystery Diamonds Came From Outer Space, Scientists Report" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rare Mystery Diamonds Came From Outer Space, Scientists Report</td></tr></tbody></table>  Scientists have debated its existence. Tiny traces provided clues. Now, researchers have confirmed the existence of a celestial diamond after finding it on Earth's surface. The stone, called lonsdaleite, has a hardness and strength that exceeds that of a regular diamond. The rare mineral arrived here by way of a meteorite, new research has suggested. Strange diamonds from an ancient dwarf planet in our solar system may have formed shortly after the dwarf planet collided with a large asteroid about 4.5 billion years ago, according to scientists. The research team says they have confirmed the existence of lonsdaleite, a rare hexagonal form of diamond, in ureilite meteorites from the mantle of the dwarf planet. Lonsdaleite is named after the famous British pioneering female crystallographer Dame Kathleen Lonsdale, who was the first woman elected as a Fellow to the Royal Society. The team – with scientists from Monash University, RMIT University, CSIRO, the Australian Synchrotron and Plymouth University – found evidence of how lonsdaleite formed in ureilite meteorites and published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The study was led by geologist Professor Andy Tomkins from Monash University. One of the senior researchers involved, RMIT Professor Dougal McCulloch, said the team predicted the hexagonal structure of lonsdaleite’s atoms made it potentially harder than regular diamonds, which had a cubic structure. <div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;">
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</div> “This study proves categorically that lonsdaleite exists in nature,” said McCulloch, Director of the RMIT Microscopy and Microanalysis Facility. “We have also discovered the largest lonsdaleite crystals known to date that are up to a micron in size – much, much thinner than a human hair.” The team says the unusual structure of lonsdaleite could help inform new manufacturing techniques for ultra-hard materials in mining applications. <h4 style="text-align: left;">What’s the origin of these mysterious diamonds?</h4>McCulloch and his RMIT team, PhD scholar Alan Salek and Dr Matthew Field, used advanced electron microscopy techniques to capture solid and intact slices from the meteorites to create snapshots of how lonsdaleite and regular diamonds formed. “There’s strong evidence that there’s a newly discovered formation process for the lonsdaleite and regular diamond, which is like a supercritical chemical vapour deposition process that has taken place in these space rocks, probably in the dwarf planet shortly after a catastrophic collision,” McCulloch said. “Chemical vapour deposition is one of the ways that people make diamonds in the lab, essentially by growing them in a specialised chamber.” Tomkins said the team proposed that lonsdaleite in the meteorites formed from a supercritical fluid at high temperature and moderate pressures, almost perfectly preserving the shape and textures of the pre-existing graphite. “Later, lonsdaleite was partially replaced by diamond as the environment cooled and the pressure decreased,” said Tomkins, an ARC Future Fellow at Monash University’s School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment. “Nature has thus provided us with a process to try and replicate in industry. We think that lonsdaleite could be used to make tiny, ultra-hard machine parts if we can develop an industrial process that promotes replacement of pre-shaped graphite parts by lonsdaleite.”<h4 style="text-align: left;">What does it mean for us?</h4>Now that scientists know about this mineral, the discovery raises the question of whether they can replicate it. Tools such as saw blades, drill bits and mining sites need to be durably hard and wear resistant, so a ready supply of lonsdaleite could make them perform even better, Salek said. And now with a credible scientific theory as to how these larger deposits formed, a rough blueprint exists to make lonsdaleite in a lab. From this discovery, we can also learn more about the interactions of the universe, said Phil Sutton, a senior lecturer in astrophysics at the University of Lincoln in the United Kingdom. Sutton was not involved in the research. In uncovering the story of where we come from and how we evolved, he added, it's important to know that materials were exchanged between environments -- even across solar systems. The above story is based on <a href="https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/all-news/2022/sep/space-diamonds#:~:text=Strange%20diamonds%20from%20an%20ancient,years%20ago%2C%20according%20to%20scientists." rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by  <a href="https://www.rmit.edu.au/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">RMIT University.</a>

Rare Mystery Diamonds Came From Outer Space, Scientists Report

Rare Mystery Diamonds Came From Outer Space, Scientists Report Scientists have debated its existence. Tiny traces provided clues. Now, res...

Never-before-seen Diamond Crystal Structure Found Inside A Meteorite

Diamonds, Meteorite, Researches 9:42 PM

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz38JqPGaesAyLm56d0w7vcDqQHfHATkZvfWvOyQNmM2qeFxJWeMDNTJKtEyqH0a1wTFOWdA_UszgTiIlNe-AZlFQ-ENhk69NHXS6d1wqNsPZ9W8rmxCw9hrgYoLjAFONsNkSLSz_SAAPLA4yBk345XEiiI3YkgKqZIVklKKjp_0mXrncQFARRCxzQ/s1200/The%20Canyon%20Diablo%20Meteorite.%20(1).jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Never-before-seen Diamond Crystal Structure Found Inside A Meteorite" border="0" data-original-height="820" data-original-width="1200" height="438" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz38JqPGaesAyLm56d0w7vcDqQHfHATkZvfWvOyQNmM2qeFxJWeMDNTJKtEyqH0a1wTFOWdA_UszgTiIlNe-AZlFQ-ENhk69NHXS6d1wqNsPZ9W8rmxCw9hrgYoLjAFONsNkSLSz_SAAPLA4yBk345XEiiI3YkgKqZIVklKKjp_0mXrncQFARRCxzQ/w640-h438/The%20Canyon%20Diablo%20Meteorite.%20(1).jpg" title="The Canyon Diablo Meteorite. Image credit: James St. John" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Never-before-seen Diamond Crystal Structure Found Inside A Meteorite. The Canyon Diablo Meteorite. Image credit: James St. John via Wikimedia Commons</td></tr></tbody></table>Weird Hexagonal Diamonds Came From an Asteroid-Dwarf Planet Smashup, The diamonds’ unusual crystal structure may make them harder than ordinary diamonds. New research indicates that a rare form of diamond may originate in the burbling cores of distant worlds, arriving on Earth thanks to violent cosmic collisions. According to a team of scientists in Australia, the mineral lonsdaleite—a type of diamond with a hexagonal crystal structure—can be found in meteorites that were likely created when an asteroid collided with a dwarf planet billions of years ago. They investigated 18 ureilite fragments using advanced electron microscopy, to better understand how the lonsdaleite within the space rocks formed. Their research is published today in PNAS. “This study proves categorically that lonsdaleite exists in nature,” said study co-author Dougal McCulloch, director of the Microscopy and Microanalysis Facility at RMIT in Australia, in a university release. Lonsdaleite has previously been found in meteorites, including the Diablo Canyon meteorite, a fragment found in Arizona’s famous Meteor Crater. The mineral has also been created in lab settings, but otherwise is vanishingly rare on Earth. The mineral differs from usual diamonds in its crystal structure, which is hexagonal (ordinary diamonds have a cubic crystal structure.) Separate research earlier this year indicated that lonsdaleite’s structure makes it harder than other diamonds. <div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;">
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</div> In their recent research, the team found that lonsdaleite occurs naturally in ureilite meteorites, a type of carbon-bearing space rock made up of silicates, sulfides, and metal. They think the recently studied ureilite rocks formed in a the mantle of an ancient dwarf planet, which collided with an asteroid early in the formation of the solar system. The hexagonal lonsdaleite diamonds formed within the ureilite rocks. Extreme physics tends to bring out uncommon mineral structures. In 1945, the Trinity bomb test showed the effectiveness of the newly developed plutonium bomb and also created trinitite, a bizarre, glasslike quasicrystal formed from desert sand and copper wiring in the high-pressure, high-temperature environment of the explosion. An asteroid’s collision with a dwarf planet is a similarly extreme event, one with the high temperatures and pressures necessary to create diamonds. Lonsdaleite has also been found in the meteorite fragments left over from the Meteor Crater impact event, which occurred about 50,000 years ago. The recent work offers “strong evidence that there’s a newly discovered formation process for the lonsdaleite and regular diamond,” McCulloch added. By the team’s reckoning, the lonsdaleite formed in the ancient dwarf planet “shortly after a catastrophic collision.” If lonsdaleite’s structure makes it harder than ordinary diamonds, it could have applications in the materials sciences. “Nature has thus provided us with a process to try and replicate in industry,” said study co-author Andy Tomkins, a geologist at Monash University, in the release. “We think that lonsdaleite could be used to make tiny, ultra-hard machine parts if we can develop an industrial process that promotes replacement of pre-shaped graphite parts by lonsdaleite.” Certainly, making these diamonds in a lab would be a more efficient method than waiting for the remnants of another cosmic collision to arrive on Earth.  The above story is based on <a href="https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/all-news/2022/sep/space-diamonds" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <a href="https://www.rmit.edu.au/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">RMIT University.</a>

Never-before-seen Diamond Crystal Structure Found Inside A Meteorite

Never-before-seen Diamond Crystal Structure Found Inside A Meteorite. The Canyon Diablo Meteorite. Image credit: James St. John via Wikimedi...

Yellowstone National Park's Roads Are "Melting"

USA, volcano, Yellowstone 10:50 PM

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYUem_JAPsx_5_CLm_u879OrvdnSHYWhDNAcfdtnJbY6yYsQWrXXl6NqBaxem5Da_6HckRnEbYrgaDKTP09cQaXp_gumy7lmc81kGGULZCi6I-lnVHSE8fPLCJMrPPJFUbFAt1bemNHhkkks9FhWNZbPxtH82oFaJSqe_nV0NkcTrD-h2AqBNtQTMg/s1203/Yellowstone%20National%20Park's%20Roads%20Are%20Melting.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Yellowstone National Park's Roads Are "Melting"" border="0" data-original-height="652" data-original-width="1203" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYUem_JAPsx_5_CLm_u879OrvdnSHYWhDNAcfdtnJbY6yYsQWrXXl6NqBaxem5Da_6HckRnEbYrgaDKTP09cQaXp_gumy7lmc81kGGULZCi6I-lnVHSE8fPLCJMrPPJFUbFAt1bemNHhkkks9FhWNZbPxtH82oFaJSqe_nV0NkcTrD-h2AqBNtQTMg/w640-h346/Yellowstone%20National%20Park's%20Roads%20Are%20Melting.jpg" title="Yellowstone National Park's Roads Are "Melting"" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yellowstone National Park's Roads Are "Melting" . Thermal images and accompanying photographs of hot areas on Firehole Lake Drive in Lower Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park. a hot pothole and deflected asphalt near Firehole Spring (images by Mark Wolf and Kiernan Folz-Donahue, July 13, 2022). </td></tr></tbody></table>  Roads in Yellowstone are melting “like silly putty.” They’re covered in ripples and potholes, and they’re getting warmed from under the Earth’s surface. No doubt you’ve heard the story—roads have melted in Yellowstone National Park, which is supposedly evidence that the region is “heating up” and that a volcanic eruption is imminent.  This story gained a lot of traction in 2014—that was the year of a magnitude-4.8 earthquake (the largest to have occurred in Yellowstone National Park since 1975), as well as the infamous “bison running” video that went viral but was badly misrepresented (the video was implied by some misinformation sources to show bison running for their lives because of impending volcanic activity, but according to the person that shot the video, was actually bison just running for the sake of running, and, what’s more, they were running into the park, not away from it). The spate of misrepresented information even prompted the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory to put out a news statement discussing the recent observations, how they were being misinterpreted, what was being flat-out made up, and that there was no sign of any imminent volcanic activity.  And as usual, volcanologists were right and misinformation sources were wrong (that’s why its called misinformation!). <div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;">
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</div> The “melting road” story, however, has persisted as one of the legendary signs of Yellowstone’s restless nature.  And unlike the bison stampede story, there is some truth to the legend—roads actually are being heated from below at Yellowstone, and some are suffering damage as a result.  But it is not a sign of the area “heating up” or progressing toward a volcanic eruption. The “melting road” of 2014 fame was Firehole Lake Drive, which is located in the Lower Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park.  During the summer of that year, the road was closed for a few days because the asphalt in certain areas was starting to fail.  One park employee, who was supervising a tour group at the time, has memories of the mess caused by thick asphalt that ended up on the tires of the vehicle just before the road was closed. Thermal images and accompanying photographs of hot areas on Firehole Lake Drive in Lower Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park.  Top shows a hot pothole and deflected asphalt near Firehole Spring (images by Mark Wolf and Kiernan Folz-Donahue, July 13, 2022).  Bottom shows thermal road damage between Great Fountain Geyser and White Dome Geyser, which is visible in the distance (images by Mark Wolf and Kiernan Folz-Donahue, July 21, 2022). Firehole Lake Drive traverses one of Yellowstone’s largest thermal areas and has a history of asphalt “deflection” that dates back decades, since well before the 2014 publicity.  The ground in the area is hot due to the abundant hydrothermal activity associated with features like Great Fountain Geyser and White Dome Geyser.  Laying asphalt directly onto such a surface is a recipe for trouble, especially during the hot summer months, when the asphalt is heated both from below, by hydrothermal sources, and from above, by the sun (it can get pretty hot in Yellowstone during summer months!). The result of this heating is that the asphalt softens and can flow, like silly putty.  This can create “ripples” in the road surface, and potholes are more likely to form.  When vehicles drive over the warmed asphalt, the road can suffer significant damage (as demonstrated by the tour bus incident from 2014).  This problem is not unique to Yellowstone.  For example, in 2012 an airplane at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., was temporarily immobilized when the tires sank into the asphalt during a spell of especially hot summer weather. Firehole Lake Drive is not the only place where thermal features cause challenges with road engineering.  The highway near the overpass at Old Faithful has been impacted by hydrothermal activity for many years.  The road adjacent to Beryl Spring, between Madison and Norris Junctions, has also required reengineering to deal with the presence of thermal ground adjacent to and beneath the roadbed, and park maintenance and engineering staff have developed innovative ways of dealing with the impacts of hydrothermal features on park infrastructure.  For example, in some areas of hot ground, like near Beryl Spring, insulating foam is applied before the road is laid to help mitigate the impact of the hot ground. Do roads sometimes “melt” in Yellowstone National Park?  The phrasing is a bit melodramatic, but indeed, roads can be impacted by the thermal ground they traverse.  This is nothing new, nor a sign of imminent volcanic activity.  Rather, it is a consequence of laying asphalt roads through areas where the ground can approach boiling temperatures, combined with high summer air temperatures.  The above story is based on <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/yvo/news/melting-roads-yellowstone-national-park" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #666666; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 300; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/yvo" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Yellowstone Volcano Observatory</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #666666; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 300; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> .

Yellowstone National Park's Roads Are "Melting"

Yellowstone National Park's Roads Are "Melting" . Thermal images and accompanying photographs of hot areas on Firehole Lake Dr...

Red Amber: Natural Rare Red Variety of Amber

Amber Fossils, Gemstones. 7:26 PM

Red Amber: Natural Rare Red Variety of Amber

Red Amber: Natural Rare Red Variety of Amber. Photo: PrimeStoneIndonesia Amber is fossilized tree resin used for jewelry, decoration, m...

There's a 'Lost City' Deep in The Ocean, And It's a Place Unlike Anywhere Else

Earth News, Geology, Researches 9:32 PM

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigVyisdRApozYFqgO4x3oBZgTtIS3-zwXtg3PCXx-O4CZ5Ivp87pBgipCr36XfaJwk9kC7vOSEEjvVsIrFUnJqHqS9A-gwV34ZFVl-TQECYcBa_ksZkH8i2KrhPBXYuxmxKgkF_FHZ2QmNP_2peuZRq0bsba-b_3xF7iMimYC86fdC8KQ6Tlc9giLu/s1232/There's%20a%20'Lost%20City'%20Deep%20in%20The%20Ocean,%20And%20It's%20a%20Place%20Unlike%20Anywhere%20Else%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="924" data-original-width="1232" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigVyisdRApozYFqgO4x3oBZgTtIS3-zwXtg3PCXx-O4CZ5Ivp87pBgipCr36XfaJwk9kC7vOSEEjvVsIrFUnJqHqS9A-gwV34ZFVl-TQECYcBa_ksZkH8i2KrhPBXYuxmxKgkF_FHZ2QmNP_2peuZRq0bsba-b_3xF7iMimYC86fdC8KQ6Tlc9giLu/w640-h480/There's%20a%20'Lost%20City'%20Deep%20in%20The%20Ocean,%20And%20It's%20a%20Place%20Unlike%20Anywhere%20Else%20(1).jpg" title="There's a 'Lost City' Deep in The Ocean, And It's a Place Unlike Anywhere Else" width="640" /></a></div>   Close to the summit of an underwater mountain west of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a jagged landscape of towers rises from the gloom. Their creamy carbonate walls and columns appear ghostly blue in the light of a remotely operated vehicle sent to explore. They range in height from tiny stacks the size of toadstools to a grand monolith standing 60 meters (nearly 200 feet) tall. This is the Lost City. Discovered by scientists in 2000, more than 700 meters (2,300 feet) beneath the surface, the Lost City Hydrothermal Field is the longest-lived venting environment known in the ocean. Nothing else like it has ever been found. For at least 120,000 years and maybe longer, the upthrusting mantle in this part of the world has reacted with seawater to puff hydrogen, methane, and other dissolved gases out into the ocean. In the cracks and crevices of the field's vents, hydrocarbons feed novel microbial communities even without the presence of oxygen. Chimneys spewing gases as hot as 40 °C (104 °F) are home to an abundance of snails and crustaceans. Larger animals such as crabs, shrimp, sea urchins and eels are rare, but still present. Despite the extreme nature of the environment, it appears to be teeming with life, and some researchers think it's worth our attention and protection. <div style="width:100%;margin: 0px auto">
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</div> While other hydrothermal fields like this one probably exist elsewhere in the world's oceans, this is the only one remotely operated vehicles have been able to find thus far. The hydrocarbons produced by the Lost City's vents were not formed from atmospheric carbon dioxide or sunlight, but by chemical reactions on the deep seafloor. Because hydrocarbons are the building blocks of life, this leaves open the possibility that life originated in a habitat just like this one. And not just on our own planet. "This is an example of a type of ecosystem that could be active on Enceladus or Europa right this second," microbiologist William Brazelton told The Smithsonian in 2018, referring to the moons of Saturn and Jupiter. "And maybe Mars in the past." Unlike underwater volcanic vents called black smokers, which have also been named as a possible first habitat, the Lost City's ecosystem doesn't depend on the heat of magma. Black smokers produce mostly iron- and sulfur-rich minerals, whereas the Lost City's chimneys produce up to 100 times more hydrogen and methane. The calcite vents of the Lost City are also much, much larger than black smokers, which suggests they've been active for longer. The tallest of the monoliths is named Poseidon, after the Greek god of the sea, and it stretches more than 60 meters high. Just northeast of the tower, meanwhile, is a cliffside with short bursts of activity. Researchers at the University of Washington describe the vents here as 'weeping' with fluid to produce "clusters of delicate, multi-pronged carbonate growths that extend outward like the fingers of upturned hands." Unfortunately, scientists aren't the only ones beckoned by that unusual terrain. In 2018, it was announced that Poland had won the rights to mine the deep sea around The Lost City. While there are no precious resources to be dredged up in the actual thermal field itself, the destruction of the city's surroundings could have unintended consequences. Any plumes or discharges, triggered by the mining, could easily wash over the remarkable habitat, scientists warn. Some experts are therefore calling for the Lost City to be listed as a World Heritage site, to protect the natural wonder before it's too late. For tens of thousands of years, the Lost City has stood as a testament to the enduring force of life. It would be just like us to ruin it. Sciencealert.com The above story is based on <a href="https://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/lost-city-pumps-life-essential-chemicals-at-rates-unseen-at-typical-black-smokers/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by<a href="https://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).</a>

There's a 'Lost City' Deep in The Ocean, And It's a Place Unlike Anywhere Else

Close to the summit of an underwater mountain west of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a jagged landscape of towers rises from the gloom. Their c...

'Diamond Factory' Discovered at Boundary of Earth's Core

Diamonds, Earth News, Geochemistry, Geology 7:47 PM

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3ySdwErp1lMlFEv-u65CgM-U6DGPp3RuGLS1cmEsWPPI7oSDEHK1cGmpL7voYIIqt5T99eYMzIbmOKhGcdQxTGrdwc7f9u1h8Rz2vHOD2gNTJhlWBlsqZMm6-1S-caTFuD6fw2d0u8urhwy_cI6k5ymrgPtvCDfCZDNtIgT9W9snVJaEad4pKS-Tr/s1140/'Diamond%20Factory'%20Discovered%20at%20Boundary%20of%20Earth's%20Core%20(2).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="855" data-original-width="1140" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3ySdwErp1lMlFEv-u65CgM-U6DGPp3RuGLS1cmEsWPPI7oSDEHK1cGmpL7voYIIqt5T99eYMzIbmOKhGcdQxTGrdwc7f9u1h8Rz2vHOD2gNTJhlWBlsqZMm6-1S-caTFuD6fw2d0u8urhwy_cI6k5ymrgPtvCDfCZDNtIgT9W9snVJaEad4pKS-Tr/w640-h480/'Diamond%20Factory'%20Discovered%20at%20Boundary%20of%20Earth's%20Core%20(2).jpg" title="Mined in the municipality of Juína, Mato Grosso State, the diamonds were formed 410–660 kilometers deep inside the Earth Suzette Timmerman / The Australian National University" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mined in the municipality of Juína, Mato Grosso State, the diamonds were formed 410–660 kilometers deep inside the Earth. Credit: Suzette Timmerman / The Australian National University</td></tr></tbody></table>  Chemistry changes when pressures get high; a new study reveals the immense forces where the Earth’s mantle meets its core create a factory of diamonds and rust. Steel rusts by water and air on the Earth's surface. But what about deep inside the Earth's interior? The Earth's core is the largest carbon storage on Earth—roughly 90% is buried there. Scientists have shown that the oceanic crust that sits on top of tectonic plates and falls into the interior, through subduction, contains hydrous minerals and can sometimes descend all the way to the core-mantle boundary. The temperature at the core-mantle boundary is at least twice as hot as lava, and high enough that water can be released from the hydrous minerals. Therefore, a chemical reaction similar to rusting steel could occur at Earth's core-mantle boundary. Byeongkwan Ko, a recent Arizona State University Ph.D. graduate, and his collaborators published their findings on the core-mantle boundary in Geophysical Research Letters. They conducted experiments at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory, where they compressed iron-carbon alloy and water together to the pressure and temperature expected at the Earth's core-mantle boundary, melting the iron-carbon alloy. <div style="width:100%;margin: 0px auto">
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</div> The researchers found that water and metal react and make iron oxides and iron hydroxides, just like what happens with rusting at Earth's surface. However, they found that for the conditions of the core-mantle boundary carbon comes out of the liquid iron-metal alloy and forms diamond. "Temperature at the boundary between the silicate mantle and the metallic core at 3,000 km depth reaches to roughly 7,000 F, which is sufficiently high for most minerals to lose H2O captured in their atomic scale structures," said Dan Shim, professor at ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration. "In fact, the temperature is high enough that some minerals should melt at such conditions." Because carbon is an iron loving element, significant carbon is expected to exist in the core, while the mantle is thought to have relatively low carbon. However, scientists have found that much more carbon exists in the mantle than expected. "At the pressures expected for the Earth's core-mantle boundary, hydrogen alloying with iron metal liquid appears to reduce solubility of other light elements in the core," said Shim. "Therefore, solubility of carbon, which likely exists in the Earth's core, decreases locally where hydrogen enters into the core from the mantle (through dehydration). The stable form of carbon at the pressure-temperature conditions of Earth's core-mantle boundary is diamond. So the carbon escaping from the liquid outer core would become diamond when it enters into the mantle." "Carbon is an essential element for life and plays an important role in many geological processes," said Ko. "The new discovery of a carbon transfer mechanism from the core to the mantle will shed light on the understanding of the carbon cycle in the Earth's deep interior. This is even more exciting given that the diamond formation at the core-mantle boundary might have been going on for billions of years since the initiation of subduction on the planet." Ko's new study shows that carbon leaking from the core into the mantle by this diamond formation process may supply enough carbon to explain the elevated carbon amounts in the mantle. Ko and his collaborators also predicted that diamond rich structures can exist at the core-mantle boundary and that seismic studies might detect the structures because seismic waves should travel unusually fast for the structures. "The reason that seismic waves should propagate exceptionally fast through diamond-rich structures at the core-mantle boundary is because diamond is extremely incompressible and less dense than other materials at the core-mantle boundary," said Shim. Ko and team will continue investigating how the reaction can also change the concentration of other light elements in the core, such as silicon, sulfur and oxygen, and how such changes can impact the mineralogy of the deep mantle. The above story is based on <a href="https://news.asu.edu/20220829-diamonds-and-rust-earths-coremantle-boundary" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank">Materials</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> provided by <a href="https://www.asu.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank">Arizona State University</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">. Original written by Andrea Chatwood.

'Diamond Factory' Discovered at Boundary of Earth's Core

Mined in the municipality of Juína, Mato Grosso State, the diamonds were formed 410–660 kilometers deep inside the Earth. Credit: Suzette Ti...

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