# Are diamonds still forming? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 6, 2020, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-diamonds-still-forming/846044 "2020-01-06T21:31:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-diamonds-still-forming/846044/21 "2020-01-08T20:23:38Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Diamond is metastable at STP, there’s not a lot of spontaneous decomposition happening. At normal surface conditions, diamond will last. > > Of course, nothing on the Earth’s surface stays at STP for all that long. Meus error; if the reaction kinetics be (and they are) such that diamonds take longer than even geological lengths of time to turn into graphite at STP, then their lack of thermodynamic stability while sitting on the surface is not particularly relevant to a consideration of their geologic formation and destruction. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-diamonds-still-forming/846044/22 "2020-01-08T23:32:20Z")
I believe diamonds were still being formed rectally in the Chicago area as late as the mid 1980s. Source: _Ferris Bueller’s Day Off_. ---
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-diamonds-still-forming/846044/23 "2020-01-08T23:55:09Z")
There’s believed to be a diamond deposit in Indiana that has not been found: > [@](#): > > . Though certainly not in economic proportions, diamonds as large as 4 carats (Brown County) have been found. The Indiana Geological Survey only has 38 recorded diamond finds over the history of Indiana, but many may not have been reported or recorded. Most, geologists agree that the gems in Indiana are not native, but came within glacial sediments from some locale to the North. Interestingly enough, while most of the diamonds found in Indiana and the surrounding area suggest (by virtue of their size and clarity)a large source field, none has ever been found. From : [http://legacy.earlham.edu/~scottna/EconomicGeology.htm](http://legacy.earlham.edu/~scottna/EconomicGeology.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2020, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-diamonds-still-forming/846044/24 "2020-01-08T23:58:33Z")
If I’m reading this thread right, pretty much everything you learned about diamond formation from Ferris Bueller is wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2020, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-diamonds-still-forming/846044/25 "2020-01-09T00:30:31Z")
[This](https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2017/09/22/scientists-just-discovered-young-diamonds/#4161fad18b68) _Forbes_ article summarizes a paper on some of the youngest known diamonds (the _Nature_ paper itself is linked and not paywalled.) [Here](https://deepcarbon.net/feature/%25E2%2580%2598kimberlite-bloom%25E2%2580%2599-during-pangea%25E2%2580%2599s-end-caused-mantle-cooling-or-deep-carbon-effects) is a somewhat related interesting article on kimberlites. And just for the heck of it, [the wiki page for carbanado](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonado), a type of diamond nobody knows where the hell it came from. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2020, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-diamonds-still-forming/846044/26 "2020-01-09T06:00:01Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > [This](https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2017/09/22/scientists-just-discovered-young-diamonds/#4161fad18b68) _Forbes_ article summarizes a paper on some of the youngest known diamonds Let’s just point out that those “youngest” diamonds are the 1-billion year-old ones we’ve been discussing all along, since **dolphinboy** ’s Wiki article cited in post #2 already took them into account. They’re still hundreds of millions of years older than the kimberlites they came up with. And geologically, carbonado is a rock that contains diamonds, not a mineral in its own right. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-diamonds-still-forming/846044/27 "2020-01-12T10:53:48Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > You’d have to balance it against the incoming carbon in carbonaceous meteors before you can say if there’s a loss or gain… You are correct, sir. Ha! ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2023, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-diamonds-still-forming/846044/28 "2023-07-27T01:04:31Z")
Interesting new study on kimberlites: [https://www.science.org/content/article/death-supercontinents-brings-diamonds-surface](https://www.science.org/content/article/death-supercontinents-brings-diamonds-surface) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-diamonds-still-forming/846044.md?page=1)