How Diamonds Are Formed Under Pressure
How Diamonds Are Formed Under Pressure — an illustrated stories story. 10 illustrated pages, free to read on Wonder Books.
Page 1
In their sunny Noe Valley kitchen, Ruby watched a tiny sparkle dance on her mother's hand as she washed vegetables. "What's that little light, Mom?" Ruby asked, leaning over the counter. Her mother smiled, wiggling her fingers so the glinting became a flash. "That's from a tiny diamond in my ring; it loves to catch the sunlight."
Page 2
Ruby tapped her drawing pencil against her notebook. "But this pencil lead is so dark and soft, and it breaks all the time!" she said, confused. Her father, stirring a pot on the stove, chuckled. "That's the amazing part, Ruby. The diamond in Mom's ring and the graphite in your pencil are both made of the exact same thing: pure carbon."
Page 3
"How can the same ingredient make one thing super strong and the other so soft?" Ruby wondered aloud, her eyes glazing over as she imagined the answer. The bright kitchen seemed to fade away, replaced by a journey deep into the Earth. She imagined traveling down, down, through miles of solid rock into a place of crushing darkness and intense, glowing heat.
Page 4
"One hundred miles beneath your feet is the Earth's upper mantle, a natural laboratory," her father's voice seemed to narrate in her mind. "Down here, the pressure is over 50,000 times greater than on the surface. The temperature is a blistering two thousand degrees Fahrenheit, hot enough to melt steel." In this incredible furnace, disorganized carbon atoms drifted everywhere.
Page 5
The immense, invisible weight of the planet began to squeeze the atoms from all sides. "It reminds me of what the writer Thomas Carlyle said," Ruby thought, recalling a quote from a book. "'No pressure, no diamonds.' He was talking about people, but for these atoms, it's literally true!"
Page 6
Under that unbelievable pressure and heat, the carbon atoms couldn't stay scattered. In an instant, they locked together, forming a perfect, interlocking 3D pattern called a tetrahedral lattice. This new structure was incredibly strong and stable, transforming the simple carbon into a tiny, flawless diamond.
Page 7
"But how did they get back to the surface?" Ruby imagined asking. Suddenly, a violent, deep-source volcanic eruption tore through the mantle. A super-fast column of molten rock, called a kimberlite pipe, rocketed upwards, carrying the newly-formed diamonds with it. This express elevator to the surface cooled them so quickly they didn't have time to change back into graphite.
Page 8
Ruby's eyes snapped back into focus in the kitchen, her mind racing. She stared at her mother's ring, then down at the soft, gray tip of her pencil. "Whoa," she breathed, looking at her parents. "So the only difference between a diamond and my pencil lead is how their atoms are stacked together?" Her dad nodded proudly, "Exactly! Same ingredient, different recipe."
Page 9
"Carbon is everywhere!" her father added, tapping his chest. "We are carbon-based lifeforms; it's the building block for all living things on Earth." Her mother pointed to the wooden fruit bowl on the counter. "The wood in this bowl, the apple in it, even the air we breathe out has carbon in it."
Page 10
Ruby grabbed her notebook, a huge grin on her face. "So the Earth uses super high pressure to turn one of the most common things in the universe into one of the hardest," she said, summarizing her discovery. She looked over at the blue flame on the gas stove, her curiosity already sparking again. "So if pressure creates diamonds... what exactly is heat, and how does a fire get so hot?"
About this story
- Audience: kids (ages 6–12)