Scientists are piecing together the mystery behind blue diamonds

A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
A new study is bringing us closer to solving the mystery of how blue diamonds are made.
Accounting for about 0.02 percent of all diamonds, blue diamonds are the rarest diamonds on Earth, The Washington Post explained. While colorless diamonds are made up of a crystalline structure of carbon atoms at the molecular level, blue diamonds are formed when that structure is interrupted by boron atoms — a rare impurity that has fascinated people for hundreds of years, since the discovery of the Hope Diamond, the world's most famous blue diamond.
Scientists have long guessed at what might cause the atomic structure of blue diamonds to change — and for the first time, they have a theory, a study published in the journal Nature on Wednesday reveals. Researchers analyzed the impurities trimmed away from cut blue diamonds and discovered traces of minerals that point to these diamonds forming from two types of rock: the oceanic crust from the Earth's surface and the ocean mantle that lies beneath it. The shifting of tectonic plates can push these two types of rocks together, creating "a match made in the abyss" that could lead diamonds to absorb the boron naturally found in seawater and thus turn blue, The Washington Post explained.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The findings suggest that blue diamonds form up to four times deeper underground than colorless diamonds — around 400 miles beneath the Earth's surface. While the theory isn't proven yet, it is "a very compelling argument," said Jeffrey E. Post, a curator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. Read more about the study at The Washington Post.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Shivani is the editorial assistant at TheWeek.com and has previously written for StreetEasy and Mic.com. A graduate of the physics and journalism departments at NYU, Shivani currently lives in Brooklyn and spends free time cooking, watching TV, and taking too many selfies.
-
Support schemes to help first-time buyers onto the property ladder
The Explainer Purchasing a home is expensive but first-time buyers can get help
By Marc Shoffman, The Week UK Published
-
Chris Packham: Is It Time to Break the Law? review
Channel 4 documentary grapples with 'profound' questions about the 'climate apocalypse'
By The Week Staff Published
-
How do we calculate mass deaths?
The Explainer Recent revisions to 9/11 victims, Libyan flood casualties and Covid-19 death toll raise questions over estimates
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Russian lunar spacecraft crashes into the moon
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
Hurricane Hilary bringing unprecedented storm warnings to Southwest
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
NASA fully restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft
Speed Read
By Justin Klawans Published
-
The US just banned most incandescent light bulbs, and few people even noticed
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
NASA loses contact with Voyager 2 probe
Speed Read
By Devika Rao Published
-
20 dead and 27 missing after lethal downpour in Beijing
Speed Read
By Theara Coleman Published
-
Biden keeps U.S. Space Command in Colorado, reversing Trump move to Alabama
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Scientists revive 46,000-year-old worm that was frozen in permafrost
Speed Read
By Devika Rao Published