Two researchers from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) have utilized a simple laptop computer and a piece of rock, obtained from a diamond mine's 'waste pile', to unravel a long-standing geological mystery surrounding the formation of diamonds in the deep roots of the earth's ancient contine
Two QUT researchers used a standard laptop and a piece of rock from a diamond mine waste pile to solve a long-standing geological puzzle about diamond formation in the Earth’s ancient continents.have utilized a simple laptop computer and a piece of rock, obtained from a diamond mine’s “waste pile”, to unravel a long-standing geological mystery surrounding the formation of diamonds in the deep roots of the earth’s ancient continents.
“We basically had a known starting composition of a rock, which is representative of the earth’s mantle at an early time in the history of the earth before all the continents were formed,” Mr. Walsh said. “We took that starting composition and modeled what would happen to it if it was progressively melted, and what would be left over. And that material is what forms the bulk of the roots of ancient continents that are still around today.
The piece of rock used for the advanced computer modeling was mined sometime between 1871 and 1914 and ended up in the “waste pile” of the legendary Kimberley diamond mine, best known as ‘The Big Hole’ – a combination open-pit and underground mine – in Kimberley, Northern Cape in South Africa.The piece of rock they have modeled, garnet harzburgite, was brought to the surface in a kimberlite pipe.
“But yet, when we look at the rocks that contain diamonds, they must have been heated to massive temperatures,” Mr. Walsh said.
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