Diamonds are forever and gold is precious, but which one is rarer? Is their rarity directly proportional to the price of jewelry in jewelry stores?
In fact, the answer may not be as obvious as you think.
According to Ulrich Faul, an earth scientist at MIT, gold is a heavy metal that was formed during the collision of neutron stars and is considered one of the rarest elements on Earth.
Yana Fedortchouk, professor of earth sciences at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada and director of the school's Experimental High Pressure Geological Research Laboratory, further explained that during the formation of the earth, heavy elements Under the influence of the earth's gravity, it gradually gathers towards the earth's core. This means that the closer you get to the Earth's crust, the harder it is to find large amounts of gold.
But scattered gold can still be found. "There are gold distributed in various rocks in the earth's crust." Fedorchuk pointed out, "But the concentration of gold must reach a certain level to form a mineral deposit with mining value."
Fedorchuk said the average concentration of gold in the Earth's crust is "very, very low" at only 4 parts per billion. To create a deposit with market value, the gold concentration would need to be 1,250 times this level.
Diamond is a common element, a product of carbon formed under extremely high pressure. It is a dense carbon element. Carbon also has a looser element called graphite, which is the substance used to make pencil lead. Compared to gold, the average concentration of carbon in the Earth's crust is about 200,000 parts per billion.
It can be seen that the rarity of a diamond has nothing to do with its elemental composition, but with its formation process. The natural transformation process of carbon into diamond is extremely difficult and has a very low success rate.
"Diamonds can only be formed in the mantle and then brought to the surface through certain methods. In addition, diamonds can also be formed by meteorite impacts. But these diamonds are very small and rarely high-quality." Fedorchuk said, "Diamonds can Formed deep in the mantle and then brought to the surface by magma deep underground, or gradually lifted to the surface during the slow process of mountain building, diamonds turn into graphite and can never be replaced as precious gems. The form reaches the surface.”
Diamond formation depends on depth, temperature and pressure. The carbon is buried 150 kilometers underground, heated to 1204 degrees Celsius under an astonishing high pressure of 5 billion Pascals, and then quickly brought to the surface through volcanic eruptions to cool. Because the process is so difficult, mined natural diamonds are even rarer than gold.
But as elements go, gold is far rarer than diamonds. After all, carbon is one of the most abundant elements on Earth, especially compared to a heavy metal like gold. Diamonds are essentially carbon, but they are formed under extremely high pressure.
The question of which is rarer, diamonds or gold, has been further complicated by the invention of synthetic diamonds. Scientists can create the necessary conditions in the laboratory to convert graphite into diamonds, a process that does not require volcanic eruptions. But not gold (sadly, alchemy is still a gimmick). But even though the composition of artificial diamonds is exactly the same as that of natural diamonds, people still think that its value is not as good as that of natural diamonds. Therefore, the price of artificial diamonds is often 30% lower than that of natural diamonds.
But have lab-grown diamonds actually made diamonds more common? Faour believes the answer is yes: "A diamond that is too small is not worth mining in the first place. Who wants to buy a diamond that can only be seen with a magnifying glass? Although gold is more common than large diamonds, if diamonds are only regarded as one type The material is actually not very rare. I think the fame of diamonds has a lot to do with successful public relations!” (Information from Sina.com)
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