Vanished diamondiferous cratonic root beneath the Southern Superior province: evidence from diamond inclusions in the Wawa metaconglomerate

We studied diamonds from a 2.697–2.700 Ga Wawa metaconglomerate (Southern Superior craton) and identified mineral inclusions of high-Cr, low-Ca pyrope garnet, low-Ti Mg-chromite, olivine (Fo₉₃), and orthopyroxene (En₉₄). The diamonds have δ¹³C of ?2.5 to ?4.0 ‰ and derive from the spinel-garnet and garnet facia of harzburgite. Geothermobarometry on non-touching, coexisting garnet-olivine and garnet-orthopyroxene pairs constrains the maximum geothermal gradient of 41 mW/m² for the Neoarchean and a minimum lithosphere thickness of 190 km. The depleted harzburgitic paragenesis equilibrated at a relatively cold geotherm suggests the presence of a pre-2.7 Ga diamondiferous cratonic root beneath the northern Wawa terrane or the Opatica terrane of the Southern Superior craton, i.e., beneath terranes identified as sources for the metaconglomerate diamonds. Geophysical surveys, geothermal data, and petrology of mantle xenoliths emplaced in the Proterozoic-Mesozoic trace evolution of the mantle thermal regime and composition from the Archean to present. The root was thinned down to 150 km by the Jurassic, when the mantle was heated to 41–42 mW/m². The diamondiferous root destruction was accompanied by more significant heating and was complete by 1.1 Ga in areas adjacent to the Midcontinent Rift. The geometry of the current high-velocity root and spatial correlations with boundaries of crustal terranes that docked to the nuclei of the Superior protocraton in the Neoarchean suggest that the root destruction in the Southern Superior may have been associated with tectonic erosion, craton amalgamation, and ensuing ingress of asthenospheric fluids.