Scientists have figured out what makes diamonds shoot up from Earth's crust to the surface

After remaining a mystery for years, scientists have finally discovered how diamonds emerge from the surface of the Earth.

Diamonds get created in the upper mantle of the Earth's crust and if they do not shoot to the surface, which is called kimberlite eruptions, humans won't be able to find them.

The eruption is a mixture of water, rock, carbon dioxide and many important kimberlite materials – which include diamonds – reaching the surface in what is also called a 'fountain of diamonds' and can travel up to 83 miles per hour.

For a long time it has been a mystery what leads to such a 'fountain of diamonds and scientists from the University of Southampton, UK have finally got an answer.

After conducting research, the scientists concluded that the eruptions occur because of a major geological event in which tectonic plates get pulled apart.

One such event occurred when the supercontinent Gondwana was divided into two around 180 million years ago and led to the creation of South America and Africa as well as sparked a series of diamond eruptions 25 million years later.

How do geological events spark eruptions?

As per the scientists, when tectonic plates move, the rock present in the upper mantle and lower crust gets mixed and starts flowing against each other – which sparks similar eruptions. After analysing the data, researchers found that these 'fountains of diamonds' occur every 22 to 30 million years.

Speaking about the findings, professor of Earth and Climate Science at the University of Southampton Thomas Gernon said that they are aiming to find new and unexplored diamond deposits.

"The diamonds have been sat at the base of the continents for hundreds of millions or even billions of years. There must be some stimulus that just drives them suddenly because these eruptions themselves are really powerful, really explosive,” he said while speaking to LiveScience.

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The data also explains why other types of volcanic eruptions, which occur a long time after supercontinent breakup in regions, should be largely stable.

"It’s a fundamental and highly organized physical process, so it’s likely not just kimberlites responding to it, but it could be a whole array of Earth system processes that are responding to this as well,” he said.

As per the University's website, the team “used statistical analysis, including machine learning, to forensically examine the link between continental breakup and kimberlite volcanism”.

Meanwhile, Senior Research Fellow Dr Thea Hincks said, "Using geospatial analysis, we found that kimberlite eruptions tend to gradually migrate from the continental edges to the interiors over time at rates that are consistent across the continents."

(With inputs from agencies)