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Mineral Associations in Diamonds from the Lowermost Upper Mantle and Uppermost Lower Mantle

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Proceedings of 10th International Kimberlite Conference

Abstract

The chapter reviews the worldwide occurrence of inclusions in diamonds which involve Si-rich minerals and which appear to come mainly from depths in the range ca 550 to 800 km. They are referred to collectively as the Perovskite and Periclase Suite. Attention is focussed upon distinguishing retrograde and primary minerals, and upon identifying associations of different primary minerals within single diamonds; this provides potential equilibrium inclusion assemblages whose depths of formation may be estimated with reference to experimental studies. Associations in the same diamond of separate inclusions of (Mg,Fe)SiO3, (Mg,Fe)O and (Mg,Fe)2SiO4—potentially representing the original phases MgSi-perovskite(mPv), ferropericlase (fPer) and ringwoodite (rw)—indicate formation at the Upper/Lower Mantle boundary. Associations involving MgSi-perovskite and ferropericlase, without ringwoodite, are taken to indicate Lower Mantle assemblages of ultrabasic bulk composition, and these are divided into two: those with low-Al MgSi-perovskite, mPv, from the shallowest Lower Mantle, and those with high-Al MgSi-perovskite, mPv(Al), from greater depths. In assemblages of basic bulk composition, the primary phases of mPv(Al), sodic majoritic garnet (maj-grt), new Al–silicate phase (NAL) and the calcium ferrite structured phase (CF) are all represented by composite inclusions, which include a variety of retrograde products such as olivine, spinel, tetragonal almandine-pyrope phase (TAPP), NaAl-rich pyroxene phase (NaAl-pyrox) and nepheline. In both ultrabasic and basic bulk compositions, the principal Ca-bearing phase appears to be CaSi-perovskite (cPv). The chemical compositions of the primary phases show considerable coherency, including relatively constant Fe–Mg partition coefficients. The postulated mineral assemblages conform well with experimental investigations, and a series of different depths of formation are indicated. In the inclusion assemblages of basic bulk composition, a transition from assemblages with sodic majoritic garnet (maj-grt) to ones with mPv(Al), NAL and CF is believed to approximately coincide with the change from mPv to mPv(Al) in ultrabasic assemblages. The eight minerals mPv–mPv(Al), fPer-mW, maj-grt, NAL, CF, cPv, corundum (crn) and stishovite (stv) [where mPv–mPv(Al) and fPer-mW indicate solid solutions] potentially define an invariant point in the 6-component composition space MgO–FeO–Al2O3–SiO2–CaO–Na2O, giving rise to a series of univariant and divariant mineral assemblages in pressure–temperature space. Consideration of the available experimental data indicates that this invariant point is probably in the pressure range 24–28 GPa under the range of temperatures expected in the uppermost Lower Mantle.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Michael Walter, Galena Bulanova, Lora Armstrong and their colleagues for giving us access to their articles ‘in press’. Thomas Stachel, Jeff Harris and Tim Holland are thanked for helpful reviews and discussions. The 10IKC Organising Committee is thanked for funding BH’s attendance at the 10th IKC. Unfortunately, in November 2012, following the acceptance of this chapter for publication, Neil Hudson died of pancreatic cancer; Ben Harte wishes to record Neil’s contributions to this manuscript, and his pleasure of collaborating with Neil over more than 40 years.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Science at Extreme Conditions (CSEC), School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, EH9 3JW, UK

    Ben Harte

  2. Geological Sciences, Kedleston Road, University of Derby, Derby, DE22 1GB, UK

    Neil F. C. Hudson

Authors
  1. Ben Harte
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  2. Neil F. C. Hudson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ben Harte .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

    D Graham Pearson

  2. Dept of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

    Herman S Grütter

  3. School of Geographical & Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom

    Jeff W Harris

  4. Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    Bruce A Kjarsgaard

  5. Finland Isotope Geosciences Laboratory, Geological Survey of Finland (GTK), Espoo, Finland

    Hugh O’Brien

  6. Department of Geology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

    N V Chalapathi Rao

  7. School of Earth Sciences, Bristol University, Bristol, United Kingdom

    Steven Sparks

Electronic Supplementary Material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary Material

A Microsoft Excel workbook is available with this chapter. The workbook contains a series of spreadsheets:

Ferropericlase inclusion compositions associated with other phases in the same diamond

MgSi-perovskite inclusion compositions

TAPP, garnet, etc. and some MgSi-perovskite inclusion compositions

NAL, CF and other inclusion compositions

‘Olivine’ (ringwoodite) inclusion compositions

Corundum inclusion compositions

All ferropericlase inclusion compositions (irrespective of the presence or absence of other inclusions).

These spreadsheets summarise the available data for the Perovskite and Periclase Suite natural inclusions, as well as experimental data with which the natural data are compared in this chapter.

ESM 1 (Spreed Sheet 1778 KB)

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Harte, B., Hudson, N.F. (2013). Mineral Associations in Diamonds from the Lowermost Upper Mantle and Uppermost Lower Mantle. In: Pearson, D., et al. Proceedings of 10th International Kimberlite Conference. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1170-9_15

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