Is it possible in a world similar to Earth for diamonds to be a common thing?

Question

I was just wondering, not knowing much of geology, if there were some reason the Earth has so little diamonds which would prevent diamonds from being common on another planet that hosts life. To put it in other words, is there a reason the Earth has so little diamond, or was it just by chance?

Answer 1

No, because diamonds are carbon which is derived from organic materials, trapped and placed under enormous compression and heat - that automatically means there has to be a bunch of material around it therefore rare.

Answer 2

Yes, there is a reason why so little diamond exists on Earth. Diamond is thermodynamically unstable with respect to graphite, so that we expect diamond to change into graphite over the course of billions of years. Furthermore, the only way that diamond can survive for a length of time is if it ascends to the surface quickly after it is formed, as is the case with those found in the kimberlite pipes in South Africa and other areas. However, if the geological conditions enabled this to occur often, then diamond would be far more abundant, for it is composed of carbon, an extremely abundant element. It's probably possible, what you say, but I can't be sure.

Answer 3

Given that carbon is found in both meteorites and comets  there is a possibility of whole diamond asteroids or comets whizzing round the enormous ever expanding universe even a planet rich in them. Given the size of the universe divided by the special needs of any particular event to occur to allow the formation of diamonds there's bound to be more than one however the trouble comes from trying to track them down from the near infinity number of possibilities. I suspose this would apply to every thing we humans hold precious, planets of platinum ect. however finding such an abundance of anything would inevitably devalue it.