Researchers Say India Could Hold Diamonds Aplenty

In its latest issue, a peer-reviewed journal published by the Geological Society of America printed an article which claims that India may harbor rough diamonds in abundance, Live Science reports. A group of geologists from the National Geophysical Research Institute in Hyderabad, India claim in the article that an area in the southeastern region of the country 200,000 square kilometers in size contains kimberlites and lamproites, the kinds of rocks which are likely indicators of the presence of the precious gems.

Geologist Subrata Das Sharma and the rest of the Hyderabad team were surveying another issue entirely, unrelated to the diamond industry, when they chanced upon evidence of the stones and decided to add to their workload and investigate it further. The group's original work involved attempting to ascertain the thickness of the lithosphere, the first layer on the surface of the planet. Only a thick lithosphere could incubate the creation of diamonds, and until recently this area of India was thought to lack it. The Hyderabad group found evidence that the local lithosphere was thick enough to facilitate diamond formation, according to Live Science. The analysis of rocks in the region confirmed that the temperatures and pressures also needed to form diamonds were likewise present.

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