Mantle processes in an Archean orogen: Evidence from 2.67 Ga diamond-bearing lamprophyres and xenoliths

The world's oldest diamond deposits occur in 2.67 Ga dikes and heterolithic breccias emplaced into greenstone belts of the Wawa and Abitibi Subprovinces, southern Superior Province, Canada. Thousands of white to yellow microdiamonds and macrodiamonds to 5 mm in width have been recovered by non-contaminating fusion techniques. The host rocks exhibit petrographic and compositional features that are characteristic of post-Archean minettes and spessartites of the calc-alkaline or shoshonitic lamprophyre clan. Based on chemical trends and petrographic evidence, host rocks that contain more than 16 wt.% MgO represent lamprophyre magmas that entrained cumulate olivine, probably at the base of the crust. Breccia bodies that are tens of metres wide at the two localities are somewhat atypical of late Archean lamprophyre occurrences in the Superior Province and owe their size to optimum conditions for magma ascent that were required to preserve the diamonds. Abundant altered ultramafic xenoliths occur in the host rocks. The majority of xenoliths studied (10 of 14) display uniform major element compositions similar to websterite cumulate suites derived from crystal fractionation processes at the base of post-Archean volcanic arcs. The xenoliths display highly variable trace element abundances that are characteristic of cryptic metasomatism associated with the flux of an oxidised fluid above a subduction zone.

The tectonic setting of the deposits and the nature of the host rocks indicate that the diamonds may be derived from the asthenospheric wedge and subducted slab at shallow depths (100 to 160 km) rather than the deep keels of Archean cratons associated with traditional diamond deposit types. Models of low-temperature Phanerozoic diamond formation in active subduction zones, or rapid uplift and emplacement of peridotite massif occurrences, can be adapted to the Archean deposits. The stability field of diamonds in most Phanerozoic subduction scenarios, however, may be too deep to be accessed by the lamprophyric magmas. In contrast, shallow subduction, as invoked for the distinctive occurrence of adakitic (slab-melt) type rocks in the southern Superior Province, could generate two different diamond stability windows at sufficiently shallow depths to account for their presence in lamprophyric magmas.

The multiple requirements imposed on Archean tectonic models by occurrences of diamonds in hydrous shoshonitic rock types (spessartite and minette lamprophyres), along with distinctively metasomatised xenoliths, strongly favour plate tectonic subduction models of orogeny. Evidence of slightly earlier mantle plumes, such as 2.7 Ga komatiites, only strengthens the need for a subduction-driven low-temperature thermal anomaly in the Archean mantle prior to lamprophyric magmatism.     

Pressure-induced phase transition in Mg0.8Fe0.2O ferropericlase

Combined X-ray powder diffraction, Mössbauer, and XANES spectroscopy in situ experiments revealed the transformation of cubic (Mg_0.8Fe_0.2)O ferropericlase to a rhombohedrally distorted phase at 35(1) GPa and room temperature. The Mössbauer spectroscopy results show that the rhombohedral distortion does not involve magnetic ordering. Combined with data from the literature, our results imply that the cubic to rhombodedral transition occurs in (Mg,Fe)O under conditions of non-hydrostatic stress over a wide range of composition (0.2≤x _Fe≤1).     

不同结构网囊特性的初步研究

为了测定不同拖网网囊结构对网囊的几何形状、同目张开、网目形状和拖网阻力的影响,设计和制作了4种网囊,一种是传统的菱形同目（DM）网囊,另三种是新型网囊：方形同目（SM）网囊,菱、方形网目混合二片式（DSM2）网囊和菱、方形同目混合四片式（DSM4）网囊。于1996年9月11～12日在中山大学试验水槽进行了同模试验,结果表明：1）各网囊阻力相差不大,且随拖速和渔获的增加而增大。2）新型网囊的几何形状和同目的张开及其形状均优于传统菱形网目网囊。3）空网时,各种网囊均呈圆筒状。当网囊中有了渔获后,传统菱形同目网囊的端部变为球状,除了球状部分的网目有较大张开外,其余同目张开很小,网囊使用直径也小,而新型网囊始终保持筒状,且网目充分张开,网囊使用直径也大。4）新型例翼的几何形状及使用直径和网目的张开及形状几乎不受拖速大小、有无渔获和渔获多少的影响。     

金刚石微粉的用途及其发展趋势

金刚石微粉是一种超硬精细磨料，在科学和工业上的应用越来越广泛。由于高新技术发展的需要，金刚石微粉的生产出现一些值得注意的发展趋势。     

PDC超硬复合材料的研究

在总结前人ＰＤＣ复合材料研究工作基础上，论述了ＰＤＣ材料复合途径及合成过程中几个关键技术问题，阐明了大直径优质ＰＤＣ复合材料合成中存在的问题及其应采取的措施。     

Petrology of the Renard igneous bodies: host rocks for diamond in the northern Otish Mountains region, Quebec

The Renard igneous bodies were discovered in late 2001 as part of a regional diamond exploration program launched by Ashton Mining of Canada and SOQUEM. Nine bodies have been discovered within a 2-km-diameter area, and are comprised of root zone to lower diatreme facies rocks including kimberlitic breccia, olivine macrocrystic hypabyssal material, and brecciated country rock with minor amounts of kimberlitic material. Many mineralogical and petrographic features are common to both kimberlite and melnoite, and strict assignment of the rocks as kimberlite is not possible with these criteria alone. Whole rock trace element compositions suggest a closer affinity to Group I kimberlite, with derivation from a garnet-bearing mantle. Exceptions to conventional classification of the rocks along petrographic or mineralogical lines may be due in part to assimilation of felsic country rock into the Renard magmas at the time of emplacement. The Renard magmas were emplaced into northeastern Laurentia at 630 Ma, when the supercontinent was undergoing a change from convergent margin magmatism to rifting, the latter being associated ultimately with the opening of the Iapetus ocean.     

Syngenetic inclusions of yimengite in diamond from Sese kimberlite (Zimbabwe) — evidence for metasomatic conditions of growth

Syngenetic inclusions of yimengite K (Cr, Ti, Mg, Fe, Al)₁₂O₁₉, a potassium member of the magnetoplumbite mineral group, have been recorded in an octahedral macrodiamond from the Sese kimberlite (50 km south of Masvingo, Zimbabwe). One yimengite inclusion carries lamellae of chromite suggesting peridotitic diamond paragenesis. The diamond and inclusions were studied in situ in a plate polished parallel to (011). Cathodoluminescence (CL) imaging has shown blue colour and octahedral zonation of the diamond, lack of cracks and the location of five yimengites in different growth zones. Nitrogen (N) contents (at. ppm) in the diamond determined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) steadily decrease from 576 (core) to 146 (rim). N aggregation (%1aB) is correspondingly 40% in the core and 30% in the rim. Hydrogen (H) content is high in the core, moderate in the intermediate and very high in the rim zones. Four yimengites were dated using the laser ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar method. Three inclusions yielded total gas ages that agree with, or are younger than, or within error of, the Sese kimberlite eruption age (538±11 Ma) but may be compromised by gas loss. One inclusion, with the highest tapped interface gas yield, gave a total gas age of 892±21 Ma that is a likely minimum yimengite age. Time–T °C constraints from N aggregation systematics give a range of possible ages from kimberlite eruption date back to Archean and do not resolve the variable results of the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating. Compared with the published chemistry of yimengite from kimberlites, inclusions from the Sese diamond contain higher Al, Mg, and Sr and have lower concentration of Fe³⁺. The chondrite-normalised REE pattern of the yimengite shows enrichment in LREE and depletion in HREE, but LREE/HREE fractionations are lower than for lindsleyite–mathiasite series mantle titanates and rather similar to the REE concentrations in kimberlite and lamproite rocks. It is suggested that Sese yimengite formed in the lithospheric mantle from metasomatism of chrome spinel by a fluid rich in Ti, K, Ba and LREE.     

Regional patterns in the paragenesis and age of inclusions in diamond, diamond composition, and the lithospheric seismic structure of Southern Africa

The Archean lithospheric mantle beneath the Kaapvaal–Zimbabwe craton of Southern Africa shows ±1% variations in seismic P-wave velocity at depths within the diamond stability field (150–250 km) that correlate regionally with differences in the composition of diamonds and their syngenetic inclusions. Seismically slower mantle trends from the mantle below Swaziland to that below southeastern Botswana, roughly following the surface outcrop pattern of the Bushveld-Molopo Farms Complex. Seismically slower mantle also is evident under the southwestern side of the Zimbabwe craton below crust metamorphosed around 2 Ga. Individual eclogitic sulfide inclusions in diamonds from the Kimberley area kimberlites, Koffiefontein, Orapa, and Jwaneng have Re–Os isotopic ages that range from circa 2.9 Ga to the Proterozoic and show little correspondence with these lithospheric variations. However, silicate inclusions in diamonds and their host diamond compositions for the above kimberlites, Finsch, Jagersfontein, Roberts Victor, Premier, Venetia, and Letlhakane do show some regional relationship to the seismic velocity of the lithosphere. Mantle lithosphere with slower P-wave velocity correlates with a greater proportion of eclogitic versus peridotitic silicate inclusions in diamond, a greater incidence of younger Sm–Nd ages of silicate inclusions, a greater proportion of diamonds with lighter C isotopic composition, and a lower percentage of low-N diamonds whereas the converse is true for diamonds from higher velocity mantle. The oldest formation ages of diamonds indicate that the mantle keels which became continental nuclei were created by middle Archean (3.2–3.3 Ga) mantle depletion events with high degrees of melting and early harzburgite formation. The predominance of sulfide inclusions that are eclogitic in the 2.9 Ga age population links late Archean (2.9 Ga) subduction-accretion events involving an oceanic lithosphere component to craton stabilization. These events resulted in a widely distributed younger Archean generation of eclogitic diamonds in the lithospheric mantle. Subsequent Proterozoic tectonic and magmatic events altered the composition of the continental lithosphere and added new lherzolitic and eclogitic diamonds to the already extensive Archean diamond suite.     

热带深对流云砧数值模拟及云凝结核数浓度对其影响的初步试验

利用中国科学院大气物理研究所发展的三维强风暴模式,对Egrett Microphysics Experiment with Radiation Lidar and Dynamics（EMERALD）试验期间的一次长寿命热带深对流个例进行对流产生、发展、消亡过程以及云砧的数值模拟,并与实测资料［包括C波段双线偏振雷达图像资料、机载云粒子成像仪（CPI）探测的云砧卷云微物理特性以及激光雷达探测的云砧宏观特性资料］进行了细致的对比,然后通过改变模式中最大云滴数浓度进行有关云凝结核数浓度影响云砧卷云冰晶含水量和数浓度的敏感性试验。模式较好地模拟出系统的一些重要宏观特征,如爆发性增长阶段、各高度雷达水平反射率因子的最大值、对流云主体移动方向、云砧底部和顶部高度。对云砧冰相粒子含水量、数浓度以及平均直径等微观特征的模拟结果与实测也比较接近。对于本文个例而言,异质核化为冰晶形成的最主要方式,其次为过冷云滴的均质核化。敏感性试验结果表明:当云凝结核数浓度增加时,爆发性增长阶段的垂直速度减小,使得对流云从中低层向高层的水物质输送量减少,从而使云砧卷云冰晶的数量减少。     

Karite-diamond fossil:A new type of natural diamond

Impact diamond is one of perspective natural type of superhard carbon materials,forming huge resources sometimes,such as Popigai impact structure counting the largest diamond storage on the Earth.By present,there are two known types of impact diamonds-after-graphitic and after-coal varieties formed from different carbon precursors.Here we present for the first time a new impact diamond type-diamond fossils,named by "karite",formed about 70 Ma from unmetamorphosed organics in the giant Kara impact crater(Pay-Khoy,Russia).A full complex of the diamond fossil characteristics is described proving its nature and phase state.Karite is presented with supernanocrystalline diamond aggregates,nicely preserves tiny cell morphology and relict features of lignin and cellulose.The diamond fossils are spread widely through the Kara impactites,point to possible wider distribution of impact diamonds within large impact occurrences around the world,can be used for impact modeling,astrobiological and material studies.