While diamonds might look pretty perched atop a ring, the rocks they hail from venture to Earth’s surface in a journey that’s anything but glamorous. Millions of years ago, some of our planet’s strangest and most violent volcanic outbursts dredged from deep underground most of the diamonds mined today in the form of blue-tinged rocks called kimberlites. The turbulent flow punches a carrot-shaped pipe through the ground, ripping out chunks of deep subsurface rock, including some that are studded with diamonds. A new study led by Dr. Gernon and published Wednesday in the journal Nature points to the ancient roots of these eruptions. He and his colleagues report that the breakup of ancient supercontinents like Pangaea and Rodinia caused deep disruptions in the flow of the mantle beneath Earth’s crust, setting off the blasts.

---

Persons: ”, Thomas Gernon, Dr, Gernon Organizations: University of Southampton Locations: England