Researchers at the University of Arizona modelled the conditions that occur in the earth's subterraneans at the core, and a study showed that the lower layers of mantle must be rich in diamonds.
In their experiment, scientists used an improved photon source to squeeze together the iron-carbon alloy and water under pressure and temperature, which should be at the border between the Earth's core and the mantle.
Researchers have found that water and metals react and form iron oxides and hydroxide, just as they do on the Earth's surface, but also, in interactions with high pressure and temperature conditions, carbon comes out of the alloy and forms diamonds.
Scientists believe that the Earth's core is the molten oil of iron and nickel, with its impurity dissolved in it. Since carbon is an iron lover, they believe that there should be a large quantity of this substance in the center of our planet. On the contrary, in the mantle it was previously thought to be relatively small.
The new study refutes this hypothesis, and scientists believe that carbon leakage, when interacting with water that reaches the Earth's core in the subduction process, should produce large quantities of diamonds that can be stable in mantle conditions.