Scientists claim that the regions deep beneath the surface of the Earth may hold more diamonds than ever imagined.
Researchers have long believed that carbon-based diamonds, a geological rarity, were formed by either two processes – methane that was oxidized or carbon dioxide reduced within moving fluids.
Since neither of those two events happened with any geochemical regularity, diamonds remain rare, elusive and highly valued, UPI reported.
Yet, a new study published in the scientific journal Nature Communications says there may be a more common scenario for diamond creation and that the precious stones may exist in greater numbers than thought.
"The more people look, the more they're finding diamonds in different rock types now," study author and geochemist Dimitri A. Sverjensky divulged. "I think everybody would agree there's more and more environments of diamond formation being discovered."
Sverjensky and his team used chemical models to illustrate alternate modes of diamond creation. According to the study, moving water increased in acidity as it flowed underground from rock to rock, setting the stage for the birth of a diamond.
And that scenario is far more common leading the scientists to believe a fabulous wealth of riches may lie just out of reach.
With all diamond formations, super-intense heat between 1,650 and 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit and extreme geological pressure must then be exerted to help crystallize and harden carbon, transforming it into a diamond. Those conditions exist primarily in the mostly solid bulk of the Earth's mantle located near the planet's core.
So far, the deepest drilling exploration ever made into the Earth's core has only been eight to nine miles below the surface, Sverjensky said.
Intriguingly, this new cache of diamonds may be measurable in microns not the traditional larger carats.
Yet, no matter how big or how many, diamonds may sit for untold millennia until they’re sent skyrocketing from the bowels of the Earth by rare massive eruptions of magma.
It is only then that diamonds can be mined, cut and polished to become "a girl's best friend."