Scientists from the University of Southampton discovered that when the supercontinents broke apart, fountains of diamonds erupted on the Earth’s surface. The research was published in the journal Nature.
Diamonds are formed deep in the earth’s crust, at a depth of about 150 kilometers. They rise to the surface at speeds of 18 to 133 km/h in eruptions called kimberlites. The study’s authors realized that this most often happens during the restructuring of the tectonic plates that make up Earth’s solid crust.
For example, large-scale rearrangements of tectonic plates took place during the breakup of the supercontinent Pangea. This huge continent united almost all the land of the Earth.
Scientists have confirmed that there is a pattern: there is a peak of kimberlite eruptions 22-30 million years later, when the plates begin to separate. Thus, 25 million years after the southern supercontinent Gondwana broke up, diamonds surfaced in modern Africa and South America. North America also saw a peak in kimberlite eruptions after the supercontinent Pangea began breaking apart about 250 million years ago.
Interestingly, these kimberlite eruptions started at the margins of faults and then progressed continuously towards the center of the mainland. Using computer simulations, the scientists discovered that the bottom of the continental crust thinned as the tectonic plates broke apart. Hot rock rises, touches the thinning crust, cools and sinks again. In this case, the rock is mixed with a large amount of water and carbon dioxide and, as a result, the diamonds that come to the surface. According to the authors, it’s like shaking a bottle of champagne.
The results could be useful in the search for undiscovered diamond deposits. They will also help explain why volcanic eruptions occur long after a supercontinent breaks up in areas that should be stable.
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