Never-before-seen diamond crystal structure found in a meteorite from Meteor Crater

Scientists recently found a unique structure of diamond and graphite in a meteorite that created Meteor Crater near Route 66 in northern Arizona that could hold big implications for the electronics industry.

The Meteor Crater meteorite is known as the Canyon Diablo meteorite, which typically are named after nearby landmarks. Diablo Canyon is well known by Route 66 fans as the site of the Two Guns ghost town in eastern Arizona.

Live Science reported:

The diamond structures were locked inside the Canyon Diablo meteorite, which slammed into Earth 50,000 years ago and was first discovered in Arizona in 1891. The diamonds in this meteorite aren’t the kind most people are familiar with. Most known diamonds were formed around 90 miles beneath Earth’s surface, where temperatures rise to more than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The carbon atoms within these diamonds are arranged in cubic shapes.

By contrast, the diamonds inside the Canyon Diablo meteorite are known as lonsdaleite — named after British crystallographer Dame Kathleen Lonsdale, University College London’s first female professor — and have a hexagonal crystal structure. These diamonds form only under extremely high pressures and temperatures. Although scientists have successfully made lonsdaleite in a lab — using gunpowder and compressed air to propel graphite disks 15,000 mph at a wall — lonsdaleite is otherwise formed only when asteroids strike Earth at enormously high speeds.

While studying lonsdaleite in the meteorite, the researchers found something odd. Instead of the pure hexagonal structures they were expecting, the researchers found growths of another carbon-based material called graphene interlocking with the diamond. These growths are known as diaphites, and inside the meteorite, they form in a particularly intriguing layered pattern. In between these layers are “stacking faults,” which mean the layers don’t line up perfectly, the researchers said in a statement.

Researchers said the unique structure one day could be used for more targeted medicines, tinier electronics with lighting-fast charging speeds, or faster technology.

Meteor Crater, designated a National National Landmark in 1967, remains a privately owned site where the operators run a museum and charge admission. It’s been more of an oddity in recent decades.

But if scientific breakthroughs occur because of a meteorite found there, Meteor Crater will have a different reputation in the coming decades.

(Aerial image of Meteor Crater by Erik Charlton via Flickr)

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