Mardon Jewelers at the Mission Inn

Recently, I was listening to Patt Morrison of KPPC 89.3 NPR radio when the term “hexagonal diamonds” caught my attention. She was discussing the extinction of saber-toothed cats and other megafauna and the disappearance of the Clovis culture from North America with Douglas J. Kennett, a scientist at the University of Oregon, who authored a paper on an impact hypothesis just published in the journal Science.

The hypothesis advanced by Kennett and his colleagues is that 12,900 years ago, a large comet or comet cluster entered the atmosphere over North America, broke into fragments, and exploded. This sent radiant heat and a huge shock wave across the continent; incinerating plants, animals and people.  While controversial and still unproven, the idea explains three enigmatic questions: the sudden climate change known as the “Younger Dryas,”  a 1500 year period of glacial conditions, and the subsequent extinction of the megafauna of North America and disappearance of the Paleolithic Clovis culture (famous for their finely made stone spearpoints and arrowheads).

Kennett and his group base this idea on the presence of what they call nanodiamonds, tiny diamonds found in the sediments of this period. He said the formation of these diamonds required the presence of 130,000 times normal atmospheric pressure, and that some of the diamonds formed in the hexagonal crystal system.  Most diamonds form in molten rock deep within the earth’s crust as crystals of the cubic system.

Scientists discovered diamonds apparently grown by explosions at the Tunguska, Siberia and Canyon Diablo, Arizona meteoric impact sites.  Much of the experimentation that led to the successful synthesis of diamond in the 1950’s involved the recreation of conditions found in explosions.  Hexagonally formed diamonds, classified as type III, diamonds of meteoric origin, have been found in such impact sites as Canyon Diablo.  The unusual thing with this new theory is that no impact crater is associated with or has been found to explain the Younger Dryas event. I’m sure the argument pro and con will rage for years.

Our hypothesis is that a diamond from Mardon, though not formed by explosion, will indeed have a major impact, and will lead to a major event in your life!  Lets test the theory with empirical evidence!

Image Source: An illustration by Irene B. Robinson from the book “Beasts of the Tar Pits, Tales of Ancient America”, The Macmillan Company, printed by Zeese-Wilkinson Co., Inc., New York, 1932, page 24.

Tags: Microdiamonds, Unusual Gems

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 17th, 2009 at 3:10 pm and is filed under Gemstones. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.