'Black diamonds came from space':Indian Geophysicst

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'Black diamonds came from space'

Bangalore, June 25. (PTI): Black diamonds found in just two places

in the world came from space, an Indian geologist claimed here today

raising questions on the notion that diamonds belong to planet earth

only.

 

Called "carbonados", the unusual type of diamonds have so far been

recovered only from alluvial deposits in Brazil and the Central

African Republic (CAR). Their origin have remained a puzzle.

 

G Parthasarathy of the Hyderabad-based National Geophysical Research

Institute (NGRI) told the Indo-US space conference here that he and

his colleagues have obtained "evidence" for the first time that

carbonados were part of extra-terrestrial objects that fell on the

earth several million years ago.

 

He carried out the studies along with S E Haggerty, a diamond expert

from the Florida International University (the US) and B Jagadeesh

and A C Kanwar of the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, also

in Hyderabad.

 

Parthasarathy said his team studied the black diamond samples from

Brazil and CAR using X-rays, electron microscope, infra-red

spectroscope and nuclear magnetic resonance.

 

He said the studies revealed the presence of traces of "osbornite," -

-an impound of titanium and nitrogen, that is only found in

meteorites known as chondrites.

 

The finding suggests possible extra-terrestrial origin of the black

diamonds, he said, adding this had recently been independently

confirmed by a group in Britain.