Introduction to the Story about How Herkimer Diamonds Were Formed: 

Any theory that seeks to explain how Herkimer Diamonds were formed should propose a story that can explain all of the features over the entire Herkimer Mining District.  Within this website you will see photos of samples, and field collecting sites, that are from all over the entire Herkimer Mining District.  We have developed an abbreviation for each mine, deposit, that helps to conserve space on the photo descriptions. The new story about how Herkimer Diamonds were made is based on the “Oil and Seed Crystal Theory”.  Over a decade of research, and help from many collaborators, is behind this new story. This theory is supported by laboratory and field evidence. Additional research is in progress, with a book planned in the future to present the story in its total breadth and scope. Any new theory must be supported by evidence, but most of all it must do a better job at explaining the diversity of features seen across the entire Herkimer diamond mining district.  We see the Oil and Seed Crystal Theory as being able to answer two simple questions: 1) Why are the mines across the Herkimer mining district different from each other? and 2) Why are the “black pockets” (cavities in the rock) often filled with brilliant high quality Herkimer diamonds? - - - No previous Herkimer diamond “story” has been adequate in providing reasonable answers to these two basic questions about how Herkimer diamonds were formed..

This new story, on how Herkimer diamonds were formed, will be presented here in “layers”, and we are doing this to make the science easily accessible to the general public. The “top layer” of the story is the first page of the website that you would encounter if you were to click next (see bottom right corner), or if you were to use the navigation bar at the top. The top layer is the easiest to understand and is presented this way so that complex ideas can be understood by the general public. The “second layer“ of the story, presents more complex evidence, and can be reached by clicking on the buttons that are present on many of the pages.  For example, below is the button for the web page on inclusions found inside Herkimer diamonds:

The “thirdllayer” of the story is based on the science supporting the observations seen within the Herkimer Mining District.  Most of this science is done on fault controlled mineralization in connection with understanding the origin of hydrocarbon deposits around the region.  Much of this information is complex science but contains support for the story told here about Herkimer diamonds. To make this science accessible we have added “numbered footnotes” throughout this website that look like: