TY - JOUR

T1 - Carbonatite melt in type Ia gem diamond

AU - Logvinova, Alla M.

AU - Shatskiy, Anton

AU - Wirth, Richard

AU - Tomilenko, Anatoly A.

AU - Ugap'eva, Sargylana S.

AU - Sobolev, Nikolay V.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2019 Copyright: Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2019/10/1

Y1 - 2019/10/1

N2 - Monocrystalline type Ia diamonds with octahedral growth morphology prevail among lithospheric diamonds, including precious stones. Unlike less common ‘fibrous’ diamonds that grew from alkali-rich carbonate-bearing melts and fluids, the growth medium of ‘monocrystalline’ type Ia diamonds remains debatable. Here we report the first finding of an optically visible (~30 μm in size) carbonate inclusion in the center of a gem type Ia octahedral diamond from the Sytykanskaya kimberlite pipe, Yakutia. We found that the inclusion consists of submicron size carbonate phases represented by K2Ca(CO3)2 bütschliite (~15 vol%), Na2Mg(CO3)2 eitelite (~5 vol%), and dolomite (~80 vol%). Although neither bütschliite nor eitelite can coexist with dolomite under mantle P-T conditions, these phases readily appear all together in the quenched products of carbonatite melt under mantle pressures. Thus, at the moment of capture, the inclusion material was a carbonatite melt with the following composition 10(K0.75Na0.25)2CO3∙90(Ca0.57Mg0.43)CO3. The content of alkali carbonates at the level of 10 mol% indicates that the melt was formed at a temperature of ≥1300 °C. The high K/Na and Ca/(Ca + Mg) ratios in this melt indicate its derivation by partial melting of recycled marine sediments (pelites). Considering an age of the last subduction event beneath the Siberian craton, our new finding implies that subducting slabs drag carbonated material of the continental crust beneath ancient cratons, where it experiences partial melting to form a potassic dolomitic melt responsible for the formation of most diamonds, since the Late Archean.

AB - Monocrystalline type Ia diamonds with octahedral growth morphology prevail among lithospheric diamonds, including precious stones. Unlike less common ‘fibrous’ diamonds that grew from alkali-rich carbonate-bearing melts and fluids, the growth medium of ‘monocrystalline’ type Ia diamonds remains debatable. Here we report the first finding of an optically visible (~30 μm in size) carbonate inclusion in the center of a gem type Ia octahedral diamond from the Sytykanskaya kimberlite pipe, Yakutia. We found that the inclusion consists of submicron size carbonate phases represented by K2Ca(CO3)2 bütschliite (~15 vol%), Na2Mg(CO3)2 eitelite (~5 vol%), and dolomite (~80 vol%). Although neither bütschliite nor eitelite can coexist with dolomite under mantle P-T conditions, these phases readily appear all together in the quenched products of carbonatite melt under mantle pressures. Thus, at the moment of capture, the inclusion material was a carbonatite melt with the following composition 10(K0.75Na0.25)2CO3∙90(Ca0.57Mg0.43)CO3. The content of alkali carbonates at the level of 10 mol% indicates that the melt was formed at a temperature of ≥1300 °C. The high K/Na and Ca/(Ca + Mg) ratios in this melt indicate its derivation by partial melting of recycled marine sediments (pelites). Considering an age of the last subduction event beneath the Siberian craton, our new finding implies that subducting slabs drag carbonated material of the continental crust beneath ancient cratons, where it experiences partial melting to form a potassic dolomitic melt responsible for the formation of most diamonds, since the Late Archean.

KW - Alkaline carbonates

KW - Bütschliite

KW - Carbonated pelites

KW - Carbonatite melt

KW - Carbonatitic inclusion

KW - Diamond formation

KW - Dolomite

KW - Earth's mantle

KW - Eitelite

KW - Growth medium of gem diamonds

KW - Mantle metasomatism

KW - Subduction

KW - FLUIDS

KW - CRYSTALLIZATION

KW - BEARING ECLOGITE

KW - HIGH-PRESSURE

KW - INCLUSIONS

KW - 6 GPA

KW - GENESIS

KW - SYSTEM NA2CO3-CACO3

KW - Biitschliite

KW - VOLATILES

KW - PHASE-RELATIONS

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85067463939&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.lithos.2019.06.010

DO - 10.1016/j.lithos.2019.06.010

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85067463939

VL - 342-343

SP - 463

EP - 467

JO - Lithos

JF - Lithos

SN - 0024-4937

ER -