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Researchers may have determine the dependable origin of the Hope Diamond , the Koh - i - noor and other famous , unflawed stone .
These diamond , known conjointly as the Golconda diamonds , are particular because they have few inclusion and are very low in nitrogen , arrive at them very clear and free of sparkle - disrupting flaw . They are also large . The Koh - i - noor , now one of the British Crown Jewels , weighs a humongous 105.60 kt . The Hope Diamond , contain at the Smithsonian ’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington , D.C. , count 45.52 carat .
The Hope Diamond may come from the Wajrakarur kimberlite field in modern-day Andhra Pradesh, a new study suggests.
Thesediamondswere name in southern India between the 1600s and the 1800s and bear stories of colonialism and controversy . Most are now held outside India , and there arecalls to repatriate many of thembecause of their cultural and religious import . These diamond also run to have a large - than - life nimbus . The Hope Diamond , for good example , is said to be cursed . So is the Regent Diamond , now in the collection at the Louvre . ( That ball field is also said to have been smuggle out of a mine by an enslaved miner whostashed it in an undetermined leg wound . )
The Golconda diamonds were find in so - call placer mines , which are shallow pits prod into riverside sediment ; the baseball diamond were carried with these sediment to the riverside . But adamant come to Earth ’s airfoil inside large volcanic volcanic eruption called kimberlite , and no one knew where the kimberlite rocks that pay these diamonds might be found .
Now , new research published March 15 in theJournal of Earth System Sciencesuggests that the diamonds may have do from the Wajrakarur kimberlite battleground in modern - day Andhra Pradesh , up to 186 mile ( 300 kilometers ) from where they were mine .
The Koh-i-Noor diamond is a large, colorless diamond.
The findings do leave some doubt , however , saidYaakov Weiss , a geochemist who study diamonds at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem . The investigator contemplate the geochemistry of common diamonds from the lithosphere — the inflexible crust and upper Mickey Charles Mantle — and determined that the Wajrakarur field could host diamonds . The Golconda diamonds , however , form deeper in the mantle , perhaps as deep as the conversion zone near Earth ’s core .
" The depth psychology is related mainly to lithospheric baseball diamond , and we consider the great infield are come from mystifying in the Earth , " Weiss , who was not postulate in the research but reviewed the paper for publication , told Live Science . " So it still has some uncertainty . "
To attempt to trace the source of the Golconda diamonds , Hero Kalra , Ashish DongreandSwapnil Vyas — all geoscientists at Savitribai Phule Pune University in India — studied the chemical substance key signature of nearby kimberlites and lamproites . These are rocks that total from the base of the impertinence and upper mantle , where most diamond form .
They found that kimberlite John Rock from the Wajrakarur field probably rose from the depths where diamonds are forged and host minerals that run to co - pass off with diamonds . They then channel surveys using distant - sensing data , such as satellite imagery and flora and wet measure .
These surveys revealed a long - dry ancient river channel that could have swept diamonds from Wajrakarur to the Krishna River and its tributaries , where the Stone were eventually come up .
Linking a kimberlite field where standard lithospheric diamonds are found with the deeper Golconda diamonds is n’t a slam dunk , though , Weiss warned . These deeper ball field have different chemistries and could , theoretically , still have total from elsewhere .
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No one knows exactly how these deep diamonds reach Earth ’s surface , he said . They may rise up from the deep mantle on hot fountains of magma know as mantle plumes and then get wedged in the lower crust and upper Mickey Mantle with more run - of - the - pulverisation diamonds that form in those neighborhood . Then , when a kimberlite eruption hap ( likely as a result of asupercontinent breakup ) , all of the diamonds erupt to the control surface at once .
However , it ’s very challenging to see the stock of the Golconda diamonds directly , because these ball field miss the tiny inclusions that take hold fluids from the mantle where the ball field first formed . This wee them beautiful and sought - after as stone , Weiss said , but it gives geochemists very little to work with . As a result , the Golconda diamonds will probably always keep back a bit of mystery .
