Jewelers  abhor diamond impurities, but they are a bonanza for scientists. Safely  encased in the super-hard diamond, impurities are unaltered, ancient  minerals that can tell the story of Earth's distant past. Researchers  analyzed data from the literature of over 4,000 of these mineral  inclusions to find that continents started the cycle of breaking apart,  drifting, and colliding about 3 billion years ago.   Lead author Steven Shirey at the Carnegie Institution's Department of  Terrestrial Magnetism explained: "The Wilson cycle is responsible for  the growth of the Earth's continental crust, the continental structures  we see today, the opening and closing of ocean basins through time,  mountain building, and the distribution of ores and other materials in  the crust. But when it all began has remained elusive until now. We used  the impurities, or inclusions, contained in diamonds, because they are  perfect time capsules from great depth benea...
 
 
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