Diamond On Mercury : Information has come to light about the presence of a thick layer of diamonds in large quantities on Mercury. A study was published in the Live Science report, which showed that a thick layer of diamonds may exist hundreds of miles below the surface of Mercury. Yanhao Lin, a scientist at the Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research in Beijing and co-author of the study, said that Mercury’s high carbon content made us realize that perhaps something special has happened in its interior. He said that Mercury has a magnetic field. At the same time, NASA’s Messenger spacecraft has also discovered black areas on Mercury’s surface in a study. It has been identified as graphite.
This layer of diamond is so thick
Scientists also recently published a study in Nature Communications, which describes a diamond layer at Mercury’s core-mantle boundary. According to the study, the layer beneath Mercury’s graphite crust is up to 18 kilometers (11 miles) thick. The research found that the chemical mixture solidifies at a higher temperature when only sulfur is added. In such a situation, there is a possibility of diamond formation.
It could be 50 kilometers deep
The team’s computer model suggested that diamonds could form during the solidification of Mercury’s inner core under these conditions. However, despite the presence of diamonds, mining them is unlikely because in addition to the extremely high temperatures on the planet, diamonds are located about 485 km below the surface, making them impossible to extract. At the same time, a 2019 study suggested that Mercury’s mantle may be 50 kilometers (80 miles) deeper than previously thought. This would increase the temperature and pressure at the mantle-core boundary, creating conditions where carbon could crystallize into diamonds.