Diamonds facts

1. Diamonds were formed between 900 million and 4.25 billion years ago, roughly 150km to 200km below the Earth’s surface.

2. A diamond has the indentation hardness of 1.25 million tons per square inch. That means if you placed the Eiffel Tower upside down on top of it, it would still be in perfect condition.

3. A vivid red diamond would be the rarest colour. They can easily sell for well over $1,000,000 per carat.

4. The largest diamond ever discovered was called the Cullinan diamond, and weighed in at an amazing 3106 carats, or 1.33 pounds.

5. Scientists have discovered a star that is essentially a diamond of ten billion trillion carats. They named the star Lucy after the Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

6. For centuries, the seeds of the carob tree were used as the standard for weighing stones. It’s from this that we take the word “carat”.