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Fundamentals of the mantle carbonatite concept of diamond genesis

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Abstract

In the mantle carbonatite concept of diamond genesis, the data of a physicochemical experiment and analytical mineralogy of inclusions in diamond conform well and solutions to the following genetic problems are generalized: (1) we substantiate that upper mantle diamond-forming melts have peridotite/eclogite–carbonatite–carbon compositions, melts of the transition zone have (wadsleyite ↔ ringwoodite)–majorite–stishovite–carbonatite–carbon compositions, and lower mantle melts have periclase/wüstite–bridgmanite–Ca-perovskite–stishovite–carbonatite–carbon compositions; (2) we plot generalized diagrams of diamondforming media illustrating the variable compositions of growth melts of diamonds and paragenetic phases, their genetic relationships with mantle matter, and classification relationships between primary inclusions; (3) we study experimentally equilibrium diagrams of syngenesis of diamonds and primary inclusions characterizing the diamond nucleation and growth conditions and capture of paragenetic and xenogenic minerals; (4) we determine the fractional phase diagrams of syngenesis of diamonds and inclusions illustrating regularities in the ultrabasic–basic evolution and paragenetic transitions in diamond-forming systems of the upper and lower mantle. We obtain evidence for physicochemically similar melt–solution ways of diamond genesis at mantle depths with different mineral compositions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Experimental Mineralogy, Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Ak. Osip’yana 4, Moscow oblast, 142432, Russia

    Yu. A. Litvin, A. V. Spivak & A. V. Kuzyura

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  1. Yu. A. Litvin
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  2. A. V. Spivak
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  3. A. V. Kuzyura
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Correspondence to Yu. A. Litvin.

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Original Russian Text © Yu.A. Litvin, A.V. Spivak, A.V. Kuzyura, 2016, published in Geokhimiya, 2016, No. 10, pp. 873–892.

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Litvin, Y.A., Spivak, A.V. & Kuzyura, A.V. Fundamentals of the mantle carbonatite concept of diamond genesis. Geochem. Int. 54, 839–857 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0016702916100086

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