Eight-carat diamond smashed in the name of science

At the University of Melbourne, a rare, eight-carat diamond has been smashed to smithereens in a bid to discover the secrets of its origin and a potential 'mother lode' of diamonds. Professor David Phillips, Head of the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Melbourne, recently took a hammer to the diamond to extract two rare, emerald-coloured inclusions. The inclusions are made of a green mineral called clinopyroxene, which contains small amounts of radioactive potassium. This makes it possible to date when the diamonds erupted out of a volcano, after they were formed inside. Knowing this makes it easier to hunt down the original source and the all-important 'mother lode' of diamonds. "It's like looking for a unique word in 'War and Peace' and instead of having to search the whole book, you only have to look through a handful of pages," Professor Phillips says. This pea-sized diamond was worth $7000 uncut and was found in a South African riverbed by exploration company Namakwa Diamonds.