[meteorite-list] New topic: Micro Diamonds

From: almitt <almitt_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun May 2 13:11:10 2004
Message-ID: <40952B7A.EA6A0E7F_at_kconline.com>

Hi David, Chris and all,

When I was at the Smithsonian Museum and in the meteorite display area, they have a
display where they took an Allende Meteorite and ground it down (probably for multiple
tests) and sorted out the diamonds in it. They then placed the diamonds in a vial to
show museum visitors that there are indeed diamonds in meteorites. Can't remember how
big the specimen was but it was a nicely done exhibit. I'll check photos and see what
I came up with or if I have other information on that.

Nininger also spoke of diamonds in Canyon Diablo Meteorites. He and other scientists
had found them and tried to figure out how they formed in that material. It was
decided that the impact of the material at high velocity was how they were able to
form. The result of hitting the Earth created enough pressure, heat to change the
carbon in the specimen to diamonds. When this was announced people started breaking
meteorites apart to find the diamonds and a number of specimens were ruin as a result
of this. The diamonds are so small and not high quality (except when you are trying to
cut the little devils) that the meteorite of course is worth many times more than the
material people sought which wasn't that rare. Best!

--AL Mitterling
Received on Sun 02 May 2004 01:10:18 PM PDT