Saturday, October 26, 2013

Carbonado, the diamond that looks like pizza.

I like to horrify current and recent students by telling them that I spent a month of my PhD figuring out what sort of film to use for best capturing the colors produced by the cathodoluminescence centres in carbonado diamond.  Of course, by the time it came to submit my thesis, I then had to spend days scanning all those slides.  Although, I still have a poster somewhere that is made from big glossy 8x10 prints, all glued to cardboard backing.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to chase some kids off my psilphytopsid lawn...

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I think that to understand carbonado diamonds, you'd have to look at their questionable and unknown formation. I think that the formation issue might be related to something else that makes ME go hmmm.

Did you ever notice that if you look in the orogony of the Wadell Sea, you can see the structure of South Africa, and the Scotia Plat matches the sill-depleted area of the African Karoo in size and shape? indeed, you can see where the Scotia Plate slid out from the Wadell rock, along its rift zone from the Atlantic.

There's another similar hmm... that ties to the Hudson Bay