Russian scientists say they have found a gigantic diamond deposit in a crater formed by a meteorite in Siberia.
The natural treasure was discovered in the 1970s, but it was not exploited and was kept secret until after the Soviet collapse. Some of the diamonds are twice as hard as conventional ones, so they could be of great value to the tech industry, although no one will ever wear them on their ring finger; researchers have already warned that they are not intended for jewelry.
The Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences said Popigai Crater, a massive 100-kilometer-diameter hole – the world’s seventh-largest impact crater – in eastern Siberia, contains millions of carats of what are known as diamonds. of impact, a huge amount. Nikolai Pokhilendo, director of the Geological Institute in Novosibirsk, told the RIA Novosti news agency that diamonds have other molecular forms of carbon.
They could be twice as hard as conventional diamonds and therefore revolutionary for use in the technology industry. In the same way, he believes that they will not cause any alteration in the world market for diamonds, since they are not suitable for jewelry.
The extraordinary hardness of diamonds is due to the conditions that occurred during the meteorite impact 35 million years ago, due to the enormous pressure and high temperatures during the impact.
The researchers conducted new studies to find out the economic and scientific value of the find.