SCIENTISTS from Carnegie Institution�s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism have determined that diamonds from Canada�s Northwest Territories are the oldest precisely dated diamonds on Earth. The diamonds are believed to have formed some 3.5 billion years ago in the Archean era, when the Earth was forming its first continents as per the reports.

Sulphide inclusions in diamonds extracted from the Panda kimberlite, weighing around 1 carat, were tested using the rhenium-osmium (Re-Os) dating technique. Rhenium and osmium are natural radioactive isotopes, which decay at a predictable rate and make good atomic clocks for determining absolute ages, according to the scientists.

Researcher Steven Shirey believes that diamonds aren�t just for spectacular jewellery They are scientific gems too. They act as tiny time capsules. Many diamonds encase tiny mineral grains, which jewellers name impurities but geoscientists call inclusions, that can tell us how old the diamond is and what geologic processes occurred in the deep Earth billions of years ago.