一百年以前,有关金刚石成因的假说纯粹是靠推测而来。直到十九世纪下半叶,人们才比较清楚地了解到在这以前发现的所有金刚石矿床都是冲积型矿床(即砂矿床)。1870年在南非,十分偶然地发现金刚石既赋存于砂粒中又赋存于一种罕见的、前所未知的建造中。这些建造位于松土之中,其上充满了巨大的、相当深的管状岩峒。在多数情况下,这些岩峒含有大量的金刚石。南非最 A hundred years ago, the hypothesis about the cause of diamond was purely speculative. It was not until the second half of the 19th century that it became clearer that all the diamond deposits discovered before were alluvial deposits (ie, sand deposits). In South Africa in 1870, it was quite accidentally discovered that diamond was found in both sand and a rare, previously unknown construction. These are built on loose soil, full of huge, rather deep, tubular ridges. In most cases, these rocks contain large amounts of diamond. South Africa most