New at Rosetta Stones: Diamonds! They Aren’t Forever!

Our second installment in our Seahawks Super Bowl Ring Geology series is up. In it, we learn how the Earth makes diamonds, and why, despite being over a billion years old, they need rapid transit to survive. It’s hot! It’s shiny! Don’t miss it.

Image shows a large diamond macrocrystal in a dark gray matrix.

A diamond in the rough. Image courtesy USGS.


  1. lyle says

    Actually according to several articles diamond is only meta stable at room temp and pressure. That is there is another state of carbon that has a lower energy, than diamond at that temp and pressure. However there is an energy barrier between diamond and that state and something has to supply the energy to clear the hill top. So taking the long term physics view, if you wait with your diamonds long enough (possibly several times the age of the universe) the diamonds will convert, so they are definitely not forever. Only a lowest energy state is forever.

  2. rq says

    No fair, you and your cliffhangers.
    My brother spent some time looking for diamonds in the Canadian north. Found some teensy weensy ones. Didn’t look anything like that massive ring on TV…