Ultra-rare diamond with another diamond inside found in Siberia

Siberian diamond miners have unearthed an exceptionally rare diamond with a second diamond rattling around inside of it.

Miners have unearthed an ultra-rare diamond with a second diamond inside it.

The inner gem is loose inside the first diamond, moving around freely — and could be the first example of such a diamond ever found in the world.

This rare gem is believed to have formed around 800 million years ago.

It was dug up by Russian diamond miners Alrosa at the Nyurba mine in Siberia.

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Scientists then used X-rays and other scanning techniques to confirm the presence of a second diamond inside the first.

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“Based on the results of the study, the scientists made a hypothesis about how the crystal was formed,” Alrosa said.

“According to them, there was an internal diamond at first, and the external one was formed during the subsequent stages of growth.”

The gem has been dubbed the Matryoshka diamond after the Russian nesting dolls of the same name.

The outer stone weighs 0.62 carats, while the inner gem weighs 0.02 carats.

“As far as we know, there has been no such diamond in the history of global diamond mining,” said Oleg Kovalchuk, of Alrosa.

“This is really a unique creation of nature, especially since nature abhors a vacuum.

An X-ray view of the diamond inside another diamond.

“Usually, in a case like this, the minerals would be replaced by others without forming a cavity.”

He added: “The most interesting thing for us was to find out how the air space between the inner and outer diamonds was formed,” said Oleg Kovalchuk, of Alrosa.

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The diamond will now be sent to the Gemological Institute of America for further analysis.

Researchers haven’t estimated its worth yet — it will be difficult due to the gem’s rarity, they say.

However, they do have one theory as to how it formed.

“A layer of porous polycrystalline diamond substance was formed inside the diamond because of ultra-fast growth,” Alrosa scientists explain.

“And more aggressive mantle processes subsequently dissolved it.

“Due to the presence of the dissolved layer, one diamond began to move freely inside another — just like a Matryoshka nesting doll.”

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission