What happens if you drop a diamond in lava?

Question

Since diamonds are indestructable, does that mean you could dip them in molten lava and nothing would happen to them?

Answer 1

Diamonds can be broken down into composites and such, but it takes a lot, a WHOLE lot of force to do it. That would be physical force though, and what you're referring to here is heat energy force.So, for immersing a diamond in lava, it would not harm the diamond itself, though the immense heat would 'purse' the external edges, basically compressing it just a micro-intenssimal bit more than it initially was to begin with, and after that, it would be caught in the 'magma flow' if allowed to enter the lava free of external, mechanical, contact. What would happen then would be the diamond would flow through the lava tubes with the molten rock, like a small bit of chaff in a stream. Eventually the diamond would get caught in a lava eddy, and end up stuck in one place, until either the eddy is freed up somehow, or the lava cools back to the rich, rocky loam, encasing the diamond. Either way, the diamond is pretty well lost to you if it enters lava.

Answer 2

Diamonds can be broken down into composites and such, but it takes a lot, a WHOLE lot of force to do it. That would be physical force though, and what you're referring to here is heat energy force.So, for immersing a diamond in lava, it would not harm the diamond itself, though the immense heat would 'purse' the external edges, basically compressing it just a micro-intenssimal bit more than it initially was to begin with, and after that, it would be caught in the 'magma flow' if allowed to enter the lava free of external, mechanical, contact. What would happen then would be the diamond would flow through the lava tubes with the molten rock, like a small bit of chaff in a stream. Eventually the diamond would get caught in a lava eddy, and end up stuck in one place, until either the eddy is freed up somehow, or the lava cools back to the rich, rocky loam, encasing the diamond. Either way, the diamond is pretty well lost to you if it enters lava.

Answer 3

the forming point of diamonds is 1200 degrees celcius at 5 gigapascals of pressure.

Magma temperature ranges from 600 degrees C to 1700 degrees C with at atmospheric pressure.

A diamond would in all probablitity be unchanged if dropped into maga/lava. It will ofcourse deteriorate over time under the extreme conditions.

Answer 4

Diamond is the hardest natural substance known to man; it, however, is not indestructable. Rule of the thumb: anything can be destroyed - it just depends on whether you have sufficient energy to do so.

Diamond combusts at around 1073K in sufficient/ excess oxygen.

Just a fun note: The forward reaction is thermodynamically favored, although it has a high activation energy - thus diamond is referred to as metastable with respect to the graphitic phase under standard conditions; it exists as diamond at rtp. So to answer your second question, in the presence of such a large volume of heat, the forward reaction takes place; enegy that is taken in to break the strong covalent bonding is equal or greater than the activation energy of reaction, finally forming graphite.

Answer 5

nothing would happen to a diamond even if you dip it into a molten lava since it is the hardest among the minerals which means that it has adamant properties

Answer 6

According to Scholastic.com the normal temperature of flowing lava is between 750 and 1,250 degrees C.

http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4887

And according to this table from Wikipedia, the diamond isotope of carbon has a melting point around 3,550 C

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_elements_by_melting_point

So, it would get buried in the lava but probably wouldn't melt.

Answer 7

Sadly, yes. I often bring a bucket of water just in case something like that happens to me. It doesn't always work, but it's better than nothing. Edit: Oh, yes. If your items fell in the lava, they burn and dissipate, making them nonexistent.

Answer 8

diamonds are destructible, but lava probably won't hurt it.

Answer 9

If there is oxygen present, it will burn.
It is made out of carbon. It's hardness is unrelated to it's reactivity.

Answer 10

everyone points at you and calls you names like stupid or dummy