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The Victor Mine (Superior Craton, Canada): Neoproterozoic lherzolitic diamonds from a thermally-modified cratonic root

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Abstract

The Jurassic Victor kimberlite (Attawapiskat Field) was emplaced into an area of the central Superior Craton that was affected by a lithosphere-scale thermal event at ~1.1 Ga. Victor diamonds formed ca. 400 million years after this event, in a lithospheric mantle characterized by an unusually cool model geotherm (37–38 mW/m2; Hasterok and Chapman 2011). The bulk of Victor diamonds derives from a thin (<10 km thick) layer that is located at about 180 km depth and represents lherzolitic substrates (for 85% of diamonds). Geothermobarometric calculations (average pressure and temperature at the 1 sigma level are 57 ± 2 kbar and 1129 ± 16 °C) coupled with typical fluid metasomatism-associated trace element patterns for garnet inclusions indicate diamond precipitation under sub-solidus (lherzolite + H2O) conditions. This conclusion links the presence of a diamond-rich lherzolitic layer in the lithospheric mantle, just above the depth where ascending melts would freeze, to the unusually low paleogeotherm beneath Attawapiskat, because along an average cratonic geotherm (40 mW/m2) lherzolite in the presence of hydrous fluid would melt at depths >140 km.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Susan Van Patter for helping I.C. with the collection of inclusion-bearing Victor diamonds. Gerhard Brey, Herman Grütter, and Michael Seller are thanked for many helpful discussions. Bruce Kjarsgaard and two anonymous reviewers are thanked for their insightful comments and edits. T.S. acknowledges funding through a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Collaborative Research and Development Grant co-sponsored by De Beers Canada Inc., a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant, and the Canada Research Chairs programme. De Beers Canada Inc. is thanked for permission to publish.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E3, Canada

    Thomas Stachel, Sonja Aulbach, Karen V. Smit & Pamela Wescott

  2. APEX Geosciences Ltd., #110, 8429-24 St. NW, Edmonton, AB, T6P 1L3, Canada

    Anetta Banas

  3. Institut für Geowissenschaften, Petrologie und Geochemie, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Altenhöferallee 1, 60438, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Sonja Aulbach

  4. Gemological Institute of America, 50 W 47th Street, New York, NY, 10036, USA

    Karen V. Smit

  5. De Beers Group Services (Pty) Ltd, Private Bag X01, Southdale, Johannesburg, 2193, South Africa

    Ingrid L. Chinn

  6. De Beers – Exploration Canada, 300-515 Consumers Road, Toronto, ON, M2J 4Z2, Canada

    Julie Kong

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  1. Thomas Stachel
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Correspondence to Thomas Stachel.

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Stachel, T., Banas, A., Aulbach, S. et al. The Victor Mine (Superior Craton, Canada): Neoproterozoic lherzolitic diamonds from a thermally-modified cratonic root. Miner Petrol 112 (Suppl 1), 325–336 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00710-018-0574-y

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