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Fabrizio Nestola
MADAM
Discovering Mineral nAnoinclusions in DiAMond
ERC - Advanced Grant - 2024
PI - Fabrizio Nestola
MADAM has officially received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) - 3.5 million euros for five years!
See the official press release by the ERC and host University of Padova.
The MADAM Research Project
Diamonds are the only geological materials capable of travelling hundreds of kilometres vertically, horizontally and through time for billions of years, while remaining un-modified since the time of their formation. Diamonds can incorporate mineral inclusions from the deep mantle that are protected from physical and chemical breakdown during ascent of the diamond to the surface. Consequently, diamonds represent a window through which geoscientists can study the otherwise inaccessible regions of the deep Earth across time and space. Based on their formation depths, diamonds are classified as lithospheric (formed between about 120 and 200 km depth) and sublithospheric (formed much deeper, between 300 and 1000 km depth). However, a third class of diamonds - fibrous diamonds - (see Figure 1) - is much less studied and the origin of these enigmatic diamonds remains contentious.
a)
b)
Figure 1. Typical fibrous diamonds. a) a polished diamond showing internal growth features, this diamond is not transparent due to millions of micro and nanometric inclusions that result in the milky-yellowish color. b) an image of a raw and uncut fibrous diamond that is also opaque. The size of both diamonds is between 2 and 3 mm.
While lithospheric and sublithospheric diamonds can capture micrometric mineral inclusions (a few µm to hundreds of µm) providing crucial information about the deep Earth, fibrous diamonds are typically characterized by the presence of millions of submicrometric fluid inclusions. Such inclusions provide information about the composition of diamond-forming fluids. However, the scarcity and nanometric size of mineral inclusions in fibrous diamonds has made constraining their formation depths, and the types of rock substrates in which they form, extremely difficult.
The MADAM research project has been funded by the ERC as an Advanced Grant for 3.5 million euros for five years. The PI of MADAM, Prof. Fabrizio Nestola and his international research team, for the first time, will investigate the structure and nature of nanometric mineral inclusions in fibrous diamonds, providing unprecedented information about these extraordinary diamonds. Thanks to this significant research fund, Prof. Nestola will acquire the first electron diffractometer (see Figure 2) applied to geoscientific research at the global level. This quantum leap in technology now allows determination of the structure of any nanometric crystalline material in less than 2 minutes. Application of electron diffraction to fibrous diamonds will allow team MADAM to analyze a large number of samples (> 100 diamonds per year) from diverse worldwide localities, providing crucial information about their depth of formation and geological significance.
Figure 2. The new XtaLAB SYNERGY-ED (Rikagu) electron diffractometer that will be installed at the Department of Geosciences. This is the first electron diffraction instrument dedicated to geoscientific research at the global level.
More information about the MADAM project, team members, potential opportunities for graduate students, and much more will be available here soon!
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