Joined: Sat Jul 11, 2009 10:29 am Posts: 928 Location: USA
I do find the meteor story a bit hard to believe. I do not believe a diamond would be able to survive entry into the Earth's atmosphere and make it to the ground. Considering a high heat torch or house fire can make a diamond go *poof*, and they are far lower in temp then those reach when penetrating and traveling through the Earth's atmosphere, lol.
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:22 pm Posts: 21600 Location: San Francisco
Well, I acquired a copy of the EGL Identification report, dated 2004.
The instruments used in identification were hardness and SG.
It is identified as Natural Carbonado
No mention of extraterrestrial origin is noted, but that sort of authentication would certainly be out of EGL's area of expertise.
The report concludes with the comment: "Carbonado is a type of cryptocrystalline diamond"
Joined: Sat Jul 11, 2009 10:29 am Posts: 928 Location: USA
As a side note and further proof that meteorites can contain "diamond" material is the fact that there is a planet that supposedly has an entire core made of "diamond"! I read it in one of my astrophotography forums I frequent. Blew my mind! I can't find the link to the news article though.
Good point J, if it was a cluster/conglomerate and hit the atmosphere at the exact proper angle for entry I guess it could be possible, however, I still think it would be highly unlikely. I think a more plausible hypothesis would be that when the meteorite struck the Earth that it "uncovered" or unearthed the diamond material in the process and that it was found with the debris and was assumed to have been part of the actual meteorite. I think we would have read about it in big news had one that size and not just traces had survived an entry and impact.
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:22 pm Posts: 21600 Location: San Francisco
There are several research studies online which seem to indicate that infrared absorption investigations confirm the extraterrestrial origin of carbonado-diamonds.
You can google it; several .pdfs are available for free download.
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:40 pm Posts: 2667 Location: South Dakota
Did none of you watch the Modern Marvels on History channel about diamonds? That last little snippet I think talked about micro diamonds from space...the guy had a whole vial full of them..they were itty bitty though..real itty bitty
_________________ MrAmethystguy ~ Some jokes just fluorite over my head!
Joined: Sat Nov 10, 2007 12:14 am Posts: 57 Location: Canberra / Siem Reap
Years ago i saw a 36" diamond saw get pinched by a large ( 20mm?) black diamond crystal at Bob Haags's place while slabbing a very large pallasite from Argentina.
It took the boys several hours to free the saw- the blade tried to go around the diamond and the saw became locked.
After they got the blade free, they came in from the other side with a small offset and the diamond was revealed.
The meteorite was full of gemmy olivine- i would have called it peridot.
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