Mineralogy of primary carbonate-bearing hypabyssal kimberlite, Lac de Gras, Slave Province, Northwest Territories, Canada
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Magnesite
Phlogopite
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Pyrope
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Kimberlites provide direct observation of the upper-mantle/lower-crust by their constituent minerals and inclusions. Blueball is a previously unreported kimberlite from Scott County, Arkansas. It is unrelated to the Murfreesboro kimberlite and is composed of phenocrysts of phlogopite and olivine (serpentinized), along with spinels, in a ground mass of calcite and phlogopite, with minor perovskite and apatite. Phlogopites are compositionally homogeneous, often with euhedral spinel inclusions, and occur as embayed and corroded laths (2 mm). Si+Al are insufficient to fill tetrahedral sites. Reverse pleochroism suggests that Fe/sup 3 +/ or Ti may occupy the remaining tetrahedral sites, similar to other kimberlitic phlogopites. Besides inclusions, spinel also occurs as discrete, anhedral grains with skeletal and atoll habits. Compositions of the two occurrences are the same. These have Mg-Al-chr cores and Mg-Al-mt rims (2-5 um). Based on mineral compositions, as well as whole-rock REE data, Blueball is a true kimberlite. Blueball minerals are compositionally similar to those from kimberlites occurring in other stable cratons (e.g., South Africa); they are dissimilar from those in kimberlites at plate margins (e.g., the Appalachians) indicating heterogeneity in the mantle underlying different tectonic regimes.
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Two types of olivine occur in kimberlites from Greenland, Canada and southern Africa. The first, xenocrystic olivine, displays several different forms. Most distinctive are 'nodules', a term we use to describe the large (1–5 mm), rounded, single crystals or polycrystalline aggregates that are a common constituent of many kimberlites. Olivine compositions are uniform within single nodules but vary widely from nodule to nodule, from Fo81 to 93. Within many nodules, sub- to euhedral asymmetric tablets have grown within larger anhedral olivine grains. Dislocation structures, particularly in the anhedral grains, demonstrate that this olivine was deformed before being incorporated into the kimberlite magma. Olivine grains in the kimberlite matrix between the nodules have morphologies similar to those of the tablets, suggesting that most matrix olivine grains are parts of disaggregated nodules. We propose that a sub- to euhedral form is not sufficient to identify phenocrysts in kimberlites and provide some criteria, based on morphology, internal deformation and composition, that distinguish phenocrysts from xenocrysts. The second type of olivine is restricted to rims surrounding xenocrystic grains. Only this olivine crystallized from the kimberlite magma. Major and trace element data for the rim olivine are used to calculate the composition of the parental kimberlite liquid, which is found to contain between about 20 and 30% MgO. The bulk compositions of many kimberlites contain higher MgO contents as a result of the presence of xenocrystic olivine. The monomineralic, dunitic, character of the nodules, and the wide range from Fo-rich to Fo-poor olivine compositions, provide major constraints on the origin of the nodules. Dunite is a relatively rare rock in the mantle and where present its olivine is persistently Fo-rich. The dunitic source of the nodules in kimberlites lacked minerals such as pyroxene and an aluminous phase, which make up about half of most mantle-derived rocks. It appears that these minerals were removed from the mantle peridotite that was to become the source of the nodules, and the Fo content of the retained olivine was modified during interaction with CO2-rich fluids whose arrival at the base of the lithosphere immediately preceded the passage of the kimberlite magmas. Fragments of the resultant dunite were entrained into the kimberlite, where they were retained both as intact nodules and as disaggregated grains in the matrix.
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Five known kimberlites intrude Lower Permian sedimentary rocks in Riley County, Kansas. Structural studies show that these kimberlites were emplaced in Late Cretaceous (post-Dakota sandstone) time. Four K-Ar age determinations on altered phlogopite from two of the kimberlites vary between $$204 \pm 20$$ m.y. and $$380 \pm 40$$ m.y. The phlogopite, therefore, crystallized much earlier than the time of emplacement of the kimberlite pipes and, in a sense, may be regarded as xenocrystic. Both the $$*Ar^{40}$$ and total K content are low due to the altered nature of the phlogopite. The pre-emplacement ages are consistent with a low temperature of injection, possibly as low as 100°-200° C, which explains the lack of pyrometamorphic contact effects in the Permian country rocks.
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