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Impact diamonds from meteorite craters and Neogene placers in Ukraine

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Abstract

There are seven meteorite craters and several Neogene placers in the Ukrainian Shield containing impact apographitic diamond. In this work impact diamonds from the Bilylivka meteorite crater and from the Samotkan’ Neogene titanium-zirconium placer were studied in detail. The results of a comprehensive study of impact diamond crystals — morphology, microtopography, microstructure, carbon isotope composition, photoluminescence, optical, infrared, and Raman spectroscopy — are presented. The size of the impact diamonds is up to 0.5 mm. Impact diamond crystals are mostly two- or three-phase polycrystalline aggregates (diamond, lonsdaleite, graphite). They show external morphological and internal microstructural features of solid-state phase transition of graphite to diamond during impact shock metamorphism – they are paramorphoses on graphite crystals. Microstructural features of the graphite-diamond transition in the studied crystals of impact diamonds are their polysynthetic (11 \(\overline{2}\) 1) twinning and the polycrystalline structure of the twins themselves. The carbon isotopic composition of impact diamonds ranges: for Bilylivka diamonds – from –14.80 to –21.84 ‰ δ13C VPDB, with an average value of –17.21 ‰ δ13C and for Samotkan’ diamonds – from –10.35 to –23.06 ‰ δ13C VPDB, with an average value of –17.64 ‰ δ13C. The photo luminescent and spectroscopic features of the studied diamonds indicate the absence of nitrogen defects in crystals that are characteristic for mantle diamond. The location of the source rocks and potential routes how diamond have been incorporated into the Samotkan’ placer are discussed.

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Acknowledgements

We are thankful to Valery I. Silaev, Michail M. Taran and Rainer Thomas for their assistance in analytical study of the impact diamonds. Analyses were carried out in laboratories of the following institutes: the Helmholtz Center Potsdam and German Research Center for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany (TEM, IR and Raman spectroscopy), the Institute of Geology, Komi scientific Center, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Syktyvkar, Russia (isotope analyses of carbon) and the Institute of Geochemistry, Mineralogy and Ore Formation of the NAS of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine (SEM, optical and photo luminescent spectroscopy, and goniometry). We are grateful to these institutes and laboratories. Anja Schreiber (Helmholtz Center Potsdam GFZ) is thanked for FIB sample preparation. We highly appreciate comments and corrections made by Associate Editor Shah Wali Faryad and Editor in Chief Maarten A.T.M. Broekmans, and by two anonymous reviewers. We dedicate this paper to the memory of Anton A. Valter (1933–2021), an outstanding mineralogist who studied the mineralogy of meteorite craters in Ukraine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Semenenko Institute of Geochemistry, Mineralogy and Ore Formation, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, pr. Akademika Palladina 34, Kyiv, 03142, Ukraine

    Victor M. Kvasnytsya

  2. Helmholtz Center Potsdam and German Research Center for Geosciences, Section 3.5 Interface Geochemistry, Telegrafenberg, 14473, Potsdam, Germany

    Richard Wirth

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  1. Victor M. Kvasnytsya
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VK and RW conceived, designed and carried out the research. VK drafted the manuscript. All authors contributed to data interpretation, discussion, and revision of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Victor M. Kvasnytsya.

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Kvasnytsya, V.M., Wirth, R. Impact diamonds from meteorite craters and Neogene placers in Ukraine. Miner Petrol 116, 169–187 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00710-022-00778-y

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