Formation of diamond with mineral inclusions of “mixed” eclogite and peridotite paragenesis

Two unusual diamonds were studied from kimberlites from China, which contain both ultramafic and eclogitic mineral inclusions in the same diamond hosts. Diamond L32 contains seven Fe-rich garnets, four omphacites and one olivine inclusion. Four olivine, one sanidine and one coesite were recovered from diamond S32. Both garnet and omphacite inclusions have similar compositions as those from other localities of the world, and show basaltic bulk composition. All the garnet and omphacite inclusions in diamond L32 have positive Eu anomalies (Eu/Eu^*1.64 1.79). These observations support the proposal that mantle eclogite is the metamorphic product of subducted ancient oceanic crust. The Mg/(Mg + Fe) ratio of the olivine inclusions from the two diamonds (91-92) are evidently lower than the normal olivine inclusions in diamonds from the same kimberlite pipe (92-95). The following model is proposed for the formation of diamonds with “mixed” mineral inclusions. Ascending diamond-bearing eclogite (recycled oceanic crust) entrained in mantle plumes may experience extensive partial melting, whereas the ambient peridotite matrix remains subsolidus in the diamond stable field. This provides a mechanism for the transport of diamond from its original eclogitic host to an ultramafic one. Subsequent re-growth of diamond in the new environment makes it possible to capture mineral inclusions of different lithological suites. Partial melts of basaltic sources may interact with the surrounding peridotite, resulting in the relatively lower Mg/(Mg + Fe) ratios of the coexisting olivine inclusions from the studied diamonds. Diamonds with “mixed” mineral inclusions demonstrate that plume activity also occurred in the Archean cratons.     

MAGNETOTELLURIC SOUNDING AND LATERAL INHOMOGENEITIES IN THE LITHOSPHERE

ABSTRACT

Libyan Desert Glass (LDG), rediscovered in modern times in 1932, is an ultrahigh-temperature glass composed of nearly pure SiO₂. LDG is found as surface float in Egypt’s Libyan (Western) Desert, its strewnfield defined by the intersection of major faults. Extra-terrestrial components are present in LDG but there is no associated impact crater. LDG is not an impactite, nor do pieces exhibit aerodynamic forms. Extremely viscous silica remained hot long enough to flow several centimetres. Additional constraints on the origin of LDG are imposed by exotic materials found nearby: a dark 30-gram granular micro-diamond mass, mullite-magnetite-silica glass rocks with micro-diamonds, lumps of fine-grained magnetite, titanium filaments, titanium nitride, titanium aluminide, aluminium oxycarbonitride, phosphides, silver, zirconium, zinc, carbonaceous grains, and metal grains coated with carbonaceous materials. The region is underlain by 500–3000 m of flat-lying sandstone composed of quartz grains and little else. To account for LDG and the other unusual materials and nearby outgassing vents, serpentinization is evoked. Products of this complex low-temperature crustal process include serpentine, magnetite, aqueous silica, and great quantities of hydrogen. The hydrogen, produced in Basement rocks beneath the sandstones, may have risen along faults, passing around grains of quartz (with which it does not react) until slowed by tight conditions, perhaps self-sealed by silica produced during serpentinization. Columns of quartz hundreds or thousands of metres high with intergranular spaces filled with H₂ (±CH₄) may have been established with some hydrogen leaking into the surface domain while still more was produced at depth. Disturbance by occasional impacts or airbursts, large or small, would violently release great columns of pressurized hydrogen, which, ignited, would burn until exhaustion. Such sustained heating events could be repeated. Exotic products might come from materials formed cold in the outer solar system, transformed in a great flickering flame with temperatures perhaps exceeding 1800°C.     

Inclusions in diamonds from the K14 and K10 kimberlites, Buffalo Hills, Alberta, Canada: diamond growth in a plume?

Analyses of mineral inclusions, carbon isotopes, nitrogen contents and nitrogen aggregation states in 29 diamonds from two Buffalo Hills kimberlites in northern Alberta, Canada were conducted. From 25 inclusion bearing diamonds, the following paragenetic abundances were found: peridotitic (48%), eclogitic (32%), eclogitic/websteritic (8%), websteritic (4%), ultradeep? (4%) and unknown (4%). Diamonds containing mineral inclusions of ferropericlase, and mixed eclogitic-asthenospheric-websteritic and eclogitic-websteritic mineral associations suggests the possibility of diamond growth over a range of depths and in a variety of mantle environments (lithosphere, asthenosphere and possibly lower mantle).

Eclogitic diamonds have a broad range of C-isotopic composition (δ¹³C=−21‰ to −5‰). Peridotitic, websteritic and ultradeep diamonds have typical mantle C-isotope values (δ¹³C=−4.9‰ av.), except for two ¹³C-depleted peridotitic (δ¹³C=−11.8‰, −14.6‰) and one ¹³C-depleted websteritic diamond (δ¹³C=−11.9‰). Infrared spectra from 29 diamonds identified two diamond groups: 75% are nitrogen-free (Type II) or have fully aggregated nitrogen defects (Type IaB) with platelet degradation and low to moderate nitrogen contents (av. 330 ppm-N); 25% have lower nitrogen aggregation states and higher nitrogen contents (30% IaB; <1600 ppm-N).

The combined evidence suggests two generations of diamond growth. Type II and Type IaB diamonds with ultradeep, peridotitic, eclogitic and websteritic inclusions crystallised from eclogitic and peridotitic rocks while moving in a dynamic environment from the asthenosphere and possibly the lower mantle to the base of the lithosphere. Mechanisms for diamond movement through the mantle could be by mantle convection, or an ascending plume. The interaction of partial melts with eclogitic and peridotitic lithologies may have produced the intermediate websteritic inclusion compositions, and can explain diamonds of mixed parageneses, and the overlap in C-isotope values between parageneses. Strong deformation and extremely high nitrogen aggregation states in some diamonds may indicate high mantle storage temperatures and strain in the diamond growth environment. A second diamond group, with Type IaA–IaB nitrogen aggregation and peridotitic inclusions, crystallised at the base of the cratonic lithosphere. All diamonds were subsequently sampled by kimberlites and transported to the Earth's surface.     

柴达木盆地北缘都兰地区榴辉岩中透长石＋石英包裹体：超高压变质作用的证据

近年来在祁连地体与紫达木地块之间大柴旦－－都兰北一线确定出一条榴辉岩带。在此带东端北部地区野马滩一带榴辉岩中，我们发现产在石榴子石内部由透长石和多晶石英（柯石英假像）构成的包裹体。包裹体在内部结构特征及周围的状裂纹反映早期超高压变质相特征，据此，推测柴达木盆地北缘榴辉岩带可能是一形成深度超过80km的超高压变质带。     

Features of coated diamonds from the Snap Lake/King Lake kimberlite dyke, Slave craton, Canada, as revealed by optical topography

Confocal photoluminescence (PL) and local absorption spectroscopy were used to study the types and spatial distribution of point defects in coated diamonds, the input of which is about 30% in the Snap Lake deposit, Canada. Nitrogen concentration is on the level of several hundreds of ppm in the core, with a nitrogen-poor layer in its outer part, whereas in the coat it is usually several times higher as a result of fast growth. Nitrogen defects in the core are strongly aggregated with N3, B and B′-forms dominating, whereas A-defects are typical of the coat. The rounded shape of the coated diamonds is a result of the combined effect of partial dissolution of the octahedral core and the “abnormal” growth of the coat, which produces a fibrous structure. Analysis of PL and PL excitation spectra showed that structureless yellow-green PL of the coat is likely to be due to nickel-nitrogen complexes with their fine structure broadened in the strain fields. The presence of irradiation/annealing products such as vacancies V⁰ and nitrogen-vacancy complexes NV⁻, N₂V₂ shows that the diamonds studied have undergone post-growth ionizing irradiation with further low-temperature annealing in natural conditions.     

Experimental investigation of the origin of majoritic garnet inclusions in diamonds

 Multianvil experiments were carried out at 10–15 GPa and 1600–1700 °C to match the compositions of majoritic garnet inclusions from diamonds, and to determine the compositions of other phases potentially coexisting with these inclusions in the source. Most experiments produced coexisting majoritic garnet, diopsidic clinopyroxene, one or more (Mg,Fe)₂SiO₄ polymorphs, and quenched carbonatic melt. The experimental garnets had relatively high Ca and Fe contents similar to the observed Ca and Fe contents of the inclusions. The resulting Si contents confirmed that the depth of origin of the inclusion with the highest Si content did not exceed 410 km, thus none of the majoritic garnet inclusions found so far originated in the transition zone (410–660 km). The evidence from inclusions and experiments is consistent with the presence of an eclogite layer occurring globally between 200 and 410 km. Compositional variations observed among more than 100 majoritic garnet inclusions with their Si content, which is a measure of pressure and depth, are consistent with the origin of the eclogite layer by crystal fractionation in a magma ocean. The compositions of olivine coexisting with majoritic garnet in the experimental products had the average Fe/(Fe + Mg) ratios between 0.16 and 0.28. Inclusions with such high Fe contents have not been found; the Fe/(Fe + Mg) ratio of the olivine inclusions in diamonds usually varies between 0.05 and 0.09. Hence, the mantle between 200 and 410 km may not contain olivine. In the absence of olivine, the discontinuity at 410 km is most likely a chemical boundary between the 200-km-thick eclogite layer and a more mafic transition zone. Received: 15 March 2001 / Accepted: 14 September 2001     

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.     

Evidence of microstructures and fluid inclusions for the origin of polycrystalline quartz ribbons in high-grade metamorphic rocks in Daqingshan resion

Polycrystalline quartz ribbons in high-grade metamorphic rocks from the Daqingshan region, are typical microfabrics of, and provide information for, deep crust deformation and metamorphism. The quartz ribbons have straight boundaries and extend stably along gneissosity. They truncate other mineral grains in the rocks and may contain inclusions of such minerals that are lens-shaped and oriented. They frequently end into branching termination. Analysis fluid inclusions in polycrystalline quartz ribbons reveal that the complex types of fluid inclusions are inhomogeneously distributed. They are obviously different from inclusions captured at granulite facies, in both fluid compositions and T-P estimations. Based on microfabric and fluid inclusion analysis, the polycrystalline quartz ribbons are suggested to be formed by SO2-rich fluids filling micro-fractures that are parallel to early gneissosity. The SO2 composition is derived from the deformed host rocks. The fluid phase has significant effects on the rheological characteristics, fracturing of rocks, and formation of quartz ribbons.     

Till geochemical and indicator mineral methods in mineral exploration

This paper summarizes advances since 1987 in the application of glacial sediment sampling to mineral exploration (drift prospecting) in areas affected by continental or alpine glaciation. In these exploration programs, clastic glacial sediments are tested by geochemical or mineralogical methods to detect dispersal trains of mineral deposit indicators that have been glacially transported from source by mechanical processes. In glaciated terrain the key sampling medium, till, is produced by abrasion, crushing and blending of rock debris and recycled sediment followed by down-ice dispersal ranging from a few metres to many kilometres. As a consequence of the mid-1980s boom in gold exploration, the majority of case studies and regional till geochemical surveys published in the past decade deal with this commodity. Approximately 30% of Canada and virtually all of Fennoscandia have been covered by regional till geochemical surveys that aid mineral exploration and provide baseline data for environmental, agricultural, and landuse planning. The most profound event in drift prospecting in the last decade, however, has been the early-1990s explosion in diamond exploration which has dramatically increased the profile of glacial geology and glacial sediment sampling and stimulated changes in sampling and analytical methods.     

微粒对多晶冰流变行为的影响(Ⅰ):应力下的流变行为

研究了应力下微粒对多晶冰流变行为的影响.结果表明:微粒分布在晶界或同时分布在晶界和晶内都将增加多晶冰的流变速率.当微粒只分布在晶界时,含微粒浓度为1 wt.%的多晶冰有最高的最小流变速率;当微粒同时分布在晶内与晶界时,多晶冰的最小流变速率基本与微粒浓度无关.微粒提高流变速率的原因来源于提高了流变过程中的位错密度,分布在晶界和晶内的微粒可以分别通过阻碍晶界滑移,发展内应力及Frank-Read位错增值机制提高流变过程中的位错密度.