Diamonds: Future and past

Diamond in the Rough   (USGS)

Some suspect that "a girl's best friend" might have been hiding out in Antarctica all along.

Charles Q. Choi of Live Science reports that diamonds are sometimes embedded in "blue-tinged rocks known as kimberlites."  Because "scientists found three kimberlite samples that were about 120 million years old" in the mountains of East Antarctica, they are thinking that diamonds might someday be found there also.

Although no longer the world's hardest-known natural material (wurtzite boron nitride and lonsdaleite are even harder), diamonds nevertheless have a long history of being revered by many cultures.

Wikipedia reports that the earliest known use for diamonds was "as the eyes of Hindu devotional statues."  In Buddhism, it is the Diamond Sutra which is said to "cut through worldly illusion to illuminate what is real

and everlasting."

Ancient Greek mythology explains that when Zeus (king of the gods) was disturbed by some youths from the island of Crete, he turned them into adamas (diamonds).
(That'll teach 'em…)

According to occult lore, diamonds insured victory to warriors who carried them bound to the left arm.  These ultimate sparklers were also believed to ward off "panics, pestilences, [and] enchantments."   

Resources

http://news.yahoo.com/sparkling-discovery-antarctica-may-contain-diamonds-175023586.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_(gemstone)

Copyright December 21, 2013 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved