How King Charles' diamonds reveal Earth's deep secrets
BBCHow King Charles' diamonds reveal Earth's deep secrets Getty Images The largest diamonds to feature in King Charles III's coronation may be pieces of the ancient ocean floor, which drifted down into the interior of our planet – then came back up. Nearly three-quarters of the Clippir diamonds contained tiny pockets, or "inclusions" of metal that had avoided rusting – not something you'd find in ordinary ones – while the remaining 15 contained a kind of garnet which only forms within the Earth's mantle, the layer above its molten core. Even the most ordinary diamonds are unique among rocks, forming far deeper than any others – there is nothing else at the Earth's surface that has emerged from further down into our planet. Eventually scientists discovered that some diamonds are "super-deep", and identified a handful of mines where they were most likely to be found – including the Cullinan mine in South Africa and Letseng mine in the nearby kingdom of Lesotho, where Smith's 124-carat specimen originated.
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