Transcript: Inclusion Conclusions

Inside a diamond, the bonds between atoms of carbon are the strongest known. This makes diamonds not only the world’s hardest substance, but four times harder than the next hardest material.

Like amber encasing an insect, diamonds sometimes capture bits of surrounding minerals. Geologists call these fragments “inclusions.”

LT: The inclusion occurs inside the diamond. Everything around the diamond has changed its integrity, it changed everything about it, its chemistry, but the little inclusion inside has remained pristine and virginal to this day, and this is the little piece of material that we’re looking for.

Using high-resolution x-ray tomography, a technique similar to a CAT-scan, Taylor and his team create a three-dimensional map of the volcanic rock, the diamonds, and the inclusions inside. They may contain garnets, or sulfide minerals, and other substances that can only be formed at hundreds of thousands of atmospheres. Analyzing these minerals reveals one of diamond’s astonishing secrets.

LT: As best we can tell, the inclusions that are inside a diamond date the diamond at being approximately somewhere between two and three billion years old.

At three billion years old, diamonds are among the earth’s oldest creations. They are time capsules, carrying information and mystery. To Taylor, a diamond’s true value is in what it can tell us about the distant past and the inner workings of the planet.