[Rockhounds] 450-Million-Year-Old Diamonds Reveal Secrets of the Evolution of Earth

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

Ancient superdeep diamonds from Brazil and Western Africa, formed between
650 and 450 million years ago beneath the supercontinent Gondwana, have
offered new insights into the formation, stabilization, and movement of
supercontinents. Studied by an international team, these diamonds act as
durable records of the Earth’s supercontinent cycles. Their analysis has
uncovered previously unknown geologic processes and showcased the integral
role of diamonds in the growth of supercontinents like Gondwana.
Superdeep diamonds formed between 650 and 450 million years ago show how
continents developed and moved.

The analysis of ancient, superdeep diamonds dug up from mines in Brazil and
Western Africa, has unveiled previously unknown mechanisms behind the
evolution and movement of continents during the early evolution of complex
life on Earth.

These diamonds which were formed between 650 and 450 million years ago on
the base of the supercontinent Gondwana, were analyzed by an international
team of experts, and have shown how supercontinents such as Gondwana were
formed, stabilized, and how they move around the planet.
Valuable Insights from Diamonds

“Superdeep diamonds are extremely rare and we now know that they can tell
us a lot about the whole process of continent formation,” says Dr Karen
Smit of the Wits School of Geosciences, who was part of the study. “We
wanted to date these diamonds to try and understand how the earliest
continents formed.”

https://scitechdaily.com/450-million-year-old-diamonds-reveal-secrets-of-the-evolution-of-earth/