Diamonds are forever, but diamonds are not rare. In contrast with other gemstones, diamonds are quite common actually. In fact, scientists have even come up with methods to create diamonds in labs using all sort of carbon-containing matter; carbon dioxide or different kinds of food stuff such as peanut butter.
Geologist Dan Frost of Beyerisches Geoinstitute in Germany has been working to come up with ways of simulating high pressure conditions of Earth’s lower mantle. During his research he has come up with some really bizarre ways of creating diamonds.
According to hypothesis by Frost, particular geological processes are able to extract carbon dioxide out of the world’s oceans and force it down into the mantle. That is where high pressure converts the gas into diamond. According to him, iron is the key ingredient for this process to take place. The high pressure that exists in mantle forces the carbon dioxide from rocks into the minerals that are rich in iron. Oxygen is stripped away in this process and leaves only carbon to form the diamond. This was confirmed when Frost recreated the process and basically created diamond out of thin air.
He won’t be able to make much of a fortune via this because the process takes a very long time for the diamonds to grow. He says, “If we wanted a two-or-three-millimeter diamond, we would need to leave it for weeks.” This didn’t prevent him from experimenting using various sources for diamond making. In fact, at the request of a German TV station he even tried the process using carbon-rich peanut butter. He said, “A lot of hydrogen was released that destroyed the experiment,” he says, “but only after it had been converted to diamond.”
