Transcript: Diamond Formation

MK: The secret of a diamond lies in the carbon bond. Carbon is one of the most plentiful substances known to science. We find carbon in plants, animals, in our bodies – carbon everywhere, and yet, diamonds are some of the rarest, most beautiful of all substances. What’s the link? The link is the extremely rare environmental conditions that take ordinary carbon –coal for example, and turn it into diamonds. We’re talking about deep inside the earth’s crust; we have the pressures, the temperatures sufficient to distort the bonding angles of the carbon atom.