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Diamond discovered in Siberia contains another diamond inside it

Diamond discovered in Siberia contains another diamond inside it

Diamonds have been mined for a very long time. However, a diamond found in Russia might be the first of its kind. It itself is hollow with another diamond moving inside it. The diamond discovered in a mine in Siberia is named the Matryoshka Diamond after the matryoshka dolls. 

It is common to find diamonds with some type of flaw or inclusion. Most diamonds have some defect or a mineral trapped inside. Some rare materials have been obtained underneath the Earth’s surface as it had been trapped in diamonds. But according to the Russian diamond mining group ALROSA, it is very new to find a diamond within a diamond. 

The Matryoshka Diamond weighs only 0.62 carats or 0.124 grams. Its dimensions are 4.8*4.9*2.8 millimeters. The inner diamond only weighs 0.02 carats with its dimensions being only 1.9*2.1*0.6 millimeters. During the sorting process, something unusual was noticed about it and then it was sent to the Research and Development Geological Enterprise of ALROSA for further assessment. Here the diamond was subjected to several processes namely Raman and infrared spectroscopies, X-ray microtomography. 

Oleg Kovalchuk from ALROSA said that the most intriguing aspect was to understand the formation of the air space between the formation of inner and outer diamonds. Scientists have some thoughts on the processes involved in the mantle of the Earth leading to this creation. 

 According to their hypotheses, due to rapid growth, a layer of polycrystalline diamond material was formed inside the diamond was ultimately dissolved due to the mantle processes. This dissolved layer allowed a diamond to move inside another freely similar to a matryoshka nesting doll. 

The age of the diamond is estimated to be around 800 million years but this is yet to be verified. As per a Bloomberg report, it is to be sent to the Gemological Institute for America for more in-depth analysis. It is difficult to estimate the worth of it since it is so rare. 

Kovalchuk said that no such diamond has ever been obtained in the entire history of the global mining of diamonds. This is a very unique creation by the natural forces as a vacuum is not really favored by nature. Normally in such a situation, the minerals would be replaced by other substances avoiding the formation of a cavity.