Deep origin of rare blue diamonds revealed in their flaws

WASHINGTON - Blue diamonds - like the Smithsonian's famous Hope diamond - are the rarest of all and how they formed more than a billion years ago is a bit of a mystery The element is mostly found near the Earth's surface, not deep down where diamonds are typically created Researchers scrutinized 46 blue diamonds, studying imperfections in the gems for clues.

"The origin of blue diamonds is such an alluring question - you don't see them very often And the famous ones, like the Hope diamond, have such mystique," said Kim Tait, a gem expert at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto Based on their findings, it's clear that blue diamonds are formed at far greater depths than other diamonds, some deeper than 410 miles, Smith said.

"Most of the impurities contained in these blue diamonds came from a very deep source," said Dongzhou Zhang, a scientist at the University of Hawaii, who was not involved in the research "This study tells us for the first time that blue diamonds are formed very deep in the interior of Earth." . Source