It may
sound weird but still it looks like even peanut butter may shine one
day. Currently scientists from the Bayerisches Geoinstitute in
Germany are taking pains in finding what Earth's mantle is actually
made of. Want they or not but it is closely connected with diamond
formation. Though the composition of the last is known but it's still
unbelievable how carbon can be transferred into the most solid stone
in the world with the change of conditions.
The
team of researchers lead by David Robson are studying possible
constituents of lower mantle, because it's still unknown what it
consists of. There exists much information on upper layers but lower
layers are buried too deep under the ground to be studied. However,
there are chambers in the laboratories where the conditions are very
close to real. So they take certain materials and expose them to high
pressure and high temperature to make them denser. Among the most odd
materials peanut butter was taken. This is not a random choice. In
fact this is a carbonaceous material which under heat and pressure
turned into small diamonds.
Other
carbon-saturated material is ash and hair/nail. These days it turns
into a practice to make diamonds out of locks of hair as a
long-lasting reminder of a person. The idea is that 'raw' material
for making diamonds should be highly carbonaceous in order that under
high pressure and extreme temperature it could dense into pure
carbon.
While
scientist are trying to explore the origin of the Earth's mantle and
as a result to find how diamonds are made, the byproduct of their
tests are more precious than they expected.
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