Huge diamond cache likely buried in Earth's interior: Study

There may be more than a quadrillion tonnes of diamond hidden 100 miles below the surface of the Earth, far deeper than any drilling expedition has ever reached, according to a study.

Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US and colleagues said the findings are unlikely to set off a diamond rush.

The ultradeep cache may be scattered within cratonic roots - the oldest and most immovable sections of rock that lie beneath the centre of most continental tectonic plates, they said.

Shaped like inverted mountains, cratons can stretch as deep as 200 miles through the Earth's crust and into its mantle; geologists refer to their deepest sections as "roots."
The researchers