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Does Mars have diamonds?

It probably does. And might even have more than Earth. Diamonds require stable points of heat and pressure to form. And although related to coal in terms of source material, they dont need organic carbon to form
 
Where does the information that 'diamonds are from coal' come from ? AFAIK they do not. They are formed in depths where coal does not exist. Life does not create carbon, it only transforms it.
 
Mars' geology has been static for at least a couple of billion years. Without a hot core and mantle, the last gasp of tectonics on Mars was the four major volcanoes and meteor events. Without the geological processes, elements are likely rather uniformly distributed through the crust and you'll have problems finding "deposits" of anything besides water and CO2, I would think.

Also, carbon is not the only gemstone; there's aluminum oxide and various sorts of silicon oxide, and others. There may be some pockets of such around the volcanoes, but not much anywhere else.

There are blueberries: http://www.spacedaily.com/images/mars-merb-rovertracks-blueberries-desk-1024.jpg
 
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Cainkane1 said:
Since coal is an organic substance and diamonds are made from coal does that mean that since life didn't develope on mars that no gems exist there?
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Do diamonds come from coal? I know they need to have carbon get into the mantel and then rise up slowly so it can crystallize properly but does it need to be coal, or would other carbon carrying materials work?
 
Diamonds are mostly C. Carbon, by itself, does not need to be linked to "life as we know it Jim". There are sources of carbon in Earth's mantle, for example. And here's a key point- the mantle. Diamonds are formed and stable at pressure/temperature conditions found at the mantle. Diamonds are generated at the mantle and then later brought to Earth's surface by "taking a ride" at rare types of magmas which rise from the mantle. Basically diamond crystals are removed from their original "host rock" as magma passes through. In Earth, these magmatic rocks (kimberlites and lamproites) are found at places where continental crust is thick and has been stable for hundreds of million years.

So, at least in theory, diamonds could have been formed in Mars' depths and we know there are volcanoes there. Some of these magmas may have originated deep enough and crossed rocks with diamond. It is possible that some diamonds may be at the vents or redistributed in placers through the surface. But its whole lot of "mays" and "maybes". If this actually happened and how much diamonds are there (I would guess not much), we will only know after Mars geology is better understood. This put, I am not aware of published reports on volcanic vents on Mars which can be interpreted as kimberlite pipes, but dikes, who knows?

Linkies, related and semi-related:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v447/n7140/full/nature05692.html
http://ammin.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/91/10/1461
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Kimberlite
http://www.minsocam.org/MSA/AmMin/TOC/Abstracts/2006_Abstracts/Oct06_Abstracts/Haggerty_p1461_06.pdf
http://bowfell.geol.ucl.ac.uk/~lidunka/EPSS/2008 speakers papers/adrianjones2.pdf
 
According to Wikipedia:

"Both the location and origin of kimberlitic magmas are areas of contention. Their extreme enrichment and geochemistry has led to a large amount of speculation about their origin, with models placing their source within the sub-continental lithospheric mantle (SCLM) or even as deep as the transition zone. The mechanism of enrichment has also been the topic of interest with models including partial melting, assimilation of subducted sediment or derivation from a primary magma source."

I'm reading that last statement as: "some people think that diamond-forming magma is enriched in carbon because it was formed from subducted coal or limestone". If that is indeed how it works, it sounds unlikely that there would be diamonds on Mars. No life forms to concentrate lots of solid carbon (is there another way to do it? Travertine?) and no subduction to turn these carbon sources back into magma.
 
There is carbon on mars and there is heat and pressure. So chemistry says yes there will be diamonds. How many and where is a problem for the areologists.
 
ben m said:
According to Wikipedia:

"Both the location and origin of kimberlitic magmas are areas of contention. Their extreme enrichment and geochemistry has led to a large amount of speculation about their origin, with models placing their source within the sub-continental lithospheric mantle (SCLM) or even as deep as the transition zone. The mechanism of enrichment has also been the topic of interest with models including partial melting, assimilation of subducted sediment or derivation from a primary magma source."

I'm reading that last statement as: "some people think that diamond-forming magma is enriched in carbon because it was formed from subducted coal or limestone". If that is indeed how it works, it sounds unlikely that there would be diamonds on Mars. No life forms to concentrate lots of solid carbon (is there another way to do it? Travertine?) and no subduction to turn these carbon sources back into magma.
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Are all carbon bearing rocks associated with life?
 
ponderingturtle said:
Are all carbon bearing rocks associated with life?
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I'm not an expert at all. I had thought that most carbon-bearing rock on Earth was either limestone or some metamorphic limestone product, but on further reading this may not be correct.
 
ben m said:
According to Wikipedia:

"Both the location and origin of kimberlitic magmas are areas of contention. Their extreme enrichment and geochemistry has led to a large amount of speculation about their origin, with models placing their source within the sub-continental lithospheric mantle (SCLM) or even as deep as the transition zone. The mechanism of enrichment has also been the topic of interest with models including partial melting, assimilation of subducted sediment or derivation from a primary magma source."

I'm reading that last statement as: "some people think that diamond-forming magma is enriched in carbon because it was formed from subducted coal or limestone". If that is indeed how it works, it sounds unlikely that there would be diamonds on Mars. No life forms to concentrate lots of solid carbon (is there another way to do it? Travertine?) and no subduction to turn these carbon sources back into magma.
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Not exactly; "primary magma source" means no lifeforms involved. In this case, its carbon from the mantle itself, gathered in Earth's accretion phase. Concentration within the mantle is supposed to be due to metassomatic processes not yet fully understood in the mantle (as if we actually understood the shallower ones).

As for limestone, not all limestone is related to lifeforms such as corals and cyanobacteria; limestone can be a purely chemical precipitate (shallow water bodies in hot climate) or the product of hydrothermal activity (travertine, for example). Regarding coal, remember it comes from (terrestrial) plants. Earliest land plants come from the Silurian; diamonds of such an origin would be younger. We know some diamonds may be 2.9 to 4.1 Ga old, what would preclude this origin. But its true that some old nanodiamonds may hint to very early lifeforms, before the Hadean.

Related linkies:
http://www.uni-muenster.de/GeoPalaeontologie/Palaeo/Palbot/seite3.html
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v425/n6955/full/nature01884.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/08/070822-diamonds.html
http://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...serid=10&md5=13582e75d71b49263001825d51997b74
http://petrology.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/egi097v1
 
ponderingturtle said:
Are all carbon bearing rocks associated with life?
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Not necessarily; for example, calcium carbonate (the mineral calcite, or in a rock, limestone) is fairly rich in carbon, and is thought to be the largest stable sink of carbon in the lithosphere. It is thought, for example, that the exposure of limestone in the raising of the Appalacians may have been responsible for an Ordovician ice age (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=appalachians-triggered-an).

The presence of black coloration in a rock layer is usually a sign of abundant life in the laying-down of that layer.
 
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