Two QUT researchers have used a standard laptop computer and a humble piece of rock - from the ‘waste pile’ of a diamond mine - to solve a long-held geological conundrum about how diamonds formed in the deep roots of the earth’s ancient continents.
Two QUT researchers have used a standard laptop computer and a humble piece of rock - from the ‘waste pile’ of a diamond mine - to solve a long-held geological conundrum about how diamonds formed in the deep roots of the earth’s ancient continents.
The paper Deep, ultra-hot-melting residues as cradles of mantle diamond has been published in the prestigious academic journal Nature by lead author QUT PhD student Carl Walsh, along with QUT Professor Balz Kamber and Emma Tomlinson from Trinity College, Ireland.
Mr Walsh said the study, for his MSc research, involved computer modelling on a rock from the African continent and recovered from the bottom of the lithosphere, the outer part of the Earth between about 30km and 250km below the surface.
Mr Walsh said the dominant part of a continent was the part that you never see.
Read more at Queensland University of Technology
Image: Professor Balz Kamber and Carl Walsh (Credit: Queensland University of Technology)
