Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T19:30:14.872Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Nucleation environment of diamonds from Yakutian kimberlites

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

G. P. Bulanova ,
W. L. Griffin  and
C. G. Ryan
G. P. Bulanova
Affiliation:
TSNIGRI, Varshavsky sh. 129B, 113545 Moscow, Russia
W. L. Griffin
Affiliation:
GEMOC Key Centre, School of Earth Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney 2109, Australia
C. G. Ryan
Affiliation:
CSIRO Exploration and Mining, Box 136, North Ryde 2113, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The micro-inclusions located in the genetic centre of Yakutian diamond monocrystals have been studied using optical (anomalous birefringence, photoluminescence, cathodoluminescence) and microanalytical (electron-microprobe, proton-microprobe, scanning electron microscope) methods. Most diamonds nucleated heterogeneously on mineral seeds, that lowered the energy barrier to nucleation. Nucleation of peridotitic diamonds occurred on a matrix of graphite+iron+wüstite, in an environment dominated by forsteritic olivine and Fe-Ni sulfide. Nucleation of eclogitic diamonds occurred on a matrix of sulfide ± iron in an environment dominated by Fe-sulfide and omphacite (±-K-Na-Al-Si-melt). The mineral assemblages recorded in the central inclusions of Yakutian diamonds indicate that they grew in a reduced environment, with oxygen fugacity controlled by the iron-wüstite equilibrium. Nucleation of diamond occurred in the presence of a fluid, possibly a volatile-rich silicate melt, highly enriched in LIL (K, Ba, Rb, Sr) and HFSE (Nb, Ti, Zr) elements. This fluid also carried immiscible Fe-Ni-sulfide melts, and possibly a carbonatitic component; the introduction of this fluid into a reduced refractory environment may have been accompanied by a thermal pulse, and may have created the conditions necessary for the nucleation and growth of diamond.

Keywords

diamondinclusionsnucleationgrowthYakutiakimberlite
Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 62 , Issue 3 , June 1998 , pp. 409 - 419
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bibby, D.M. (1979) Zonal distribution of impurities in diamond. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 43, 415–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bulanova, G.P. (1995) The formation of diamond. J. Geochem. Explor., 53, 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bulanova, G.P., Varshavskiy, A.V., Leskova, N.V. and Nikishova, L.V. (1979) On “central” inclusions in natural diamonds. Doklady Akad. Nauk SSSR, 244, 704–6 (in Russian).Google Scholar
Bulanova, G.P., Novgorodov, P.G. and Pavlova, L.A. (1988) A first find of melt inclusions in diamond from Mir pipe. Geokhimiya, 5, 756–65 (in Russian).Google Scholar
Bulanova, G.P., Spetsius, Z.V. and Leskova, N.V. (1990) Sulfides in diamonds and mantle xenoliths from kimberlitic pipes of Yakutia. Nauka, Novosibirsk, 118pp. (in Russian).Google Scholar
Bulanova, G.P. and Zayakina, N.V. (1991) Graphite-iron-cohenite assemblage in the central zone of diamond from 23rd Party Congress kimberlite. Doklady Akad. Nauk SSSR, 317, 706–9(in Russian).Google Scholar
Bulanova, G.P., Barashkov, Yu.P., Tal’nikova, S.B. and Smelova, G.B. (1993) Natural diamond — genetic aspects. Nauka, Novosibirsk, 176pp. (in Russian).Google Scholar
Bulanova, G.P., Griffin, W.L., Ryan, C.G., Shestakova, O.Ye. and Barnes, S.J. (1996) Trace elements in sulfide inclusions from Yakutian diamonds. Contrib. Mineral. Petrol., 124, 111–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chepurov, A.J. (1988) On the role of sulfide melt in the process of diamond origin. Geol. Geophys., 8, 110–24 (in Russian).Google Scholar
Erasmus, C.S., Sellschop, J.P.F., Bibby, D.M., Fesq, H.W., Kable, E.J.D., Keddy, R.J., Hawkins, D.M., Mingay, D.W., Rasmussen, S.E., Renan, M.J. and Watterson, J.I.W. (1977) Natural diamonds — major, minor and trace impurities in relation to source and physical properties. J. Radioanal. Chem., 38, 133–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griffin, W.L., Gurney, J.J. and Ryan, C.G. (1992) Variations in trapping temperatures and trace elements in peridotite-suite inclusions from African diamonds: evidence for two inclusion suites, and implications for lithosphere stratigraphy. Contrib. Mineral. Petrol., 110, 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griffin, W.L., Sobolev, N.V., Ryan, C.G., Pokhilenko, N.P, Win, T.T. and Yefimova, Y. (1993) Trace elements in garnets and chromites: diamond formation in the Siberian lithosphere. Lithos, 29, 235–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lambrecht, W.R.L., Lee, C.H., Segall, B., Angus, J.C., Li, Z. and Sunkara, M. (1993) Diamond nucleation by hydrogenation of the edges of graphitic precursors. Nature, 364, 607–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, H.O.A. (1987) Inclusions in diamond. In Mantle Xenoliths. (Nixon, P.H., ed. ), Wiley, pp. 501–22.Google Scholar
Milledge, H.J., Woods, P.A., Taylor, W.R., Bulanova, G.P. and Kaminsky, F.V. (1993 ) Cathodoluminescence and infrared studies of Russian diamonds. Abstr. IAVCEI General Assembly, Canberra, 74.Google Scholar
Navon, O., Hutcheon, I.D., Rossman, G.R. and Wasserburg, G.L. (1988) Mantle-derived fluids in diamond micro-inclusions. Nature, 335, 784–9.Google Scholar
Richardson, S.H., Gurney, J.J., Erlank, A.J. and Harris, J.W. (1984) Origin of diamond in old enriched mantle. Nature, 310, 198–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryan, C.G., Cousens, D.R., Heinrich, C.A., Griffin, W.L., Sie, S.H. and Mernagh, T.P. (1991 ) Quantitative PIXE microanalysis of fluid inclusions, based on a layered yield model. Nucl. Instr. Meth., B54, 292–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schrauder, M. and Navon, O. (1994) Hydrous and carbonatic mantle fluids in fibrous diamonds from Jwaneng, Botswana. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 58, 761–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schrauder, M., Navon, O. and Harris, J.W. (1993) Carbonate and water—bearing fluids trapped in an octahedral peridotitic diamond. EOS, Trans. Amer. Geophys. Union, 74, 636.Google Scholar
Schrauder, M., Koeberl, C. and Navon, O. (1996) Trace element analyses of fluid—bearing diamonds from Jwaneng, Botswana. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 60, 4711–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sunagawa, I. (1984) Morphology of natural and synthetic diamond crystals. In Material Science of the Earth's Interior. (Sunagawa, I., ed.) Terrapub., Tokyo, pp. 303–31.Google Scholar
Varshavskiy, A.V. (1968) Anomalous birefringence and internal morphology of diamonds. Nauka, Moscow, 89 pp. (in Russian).Google Scholar