nanometric inclusions of carbonates in kokchetav diamonds from kazakhstan a new constraint for the depth of metamorphic diamond crystallization abstract previous studies have revealed that microdiamonds from the kokchetav ultra high pressure metamorphic terrane of kazakhstan contain nanometric scale inclusions of si fe ti and cr oxides because the structure of sio 2 inclusions was not confirmed to be coesite or stishovite due to their very small size such diamonds formerly served only as an indicator of a minimum pressure ca 4 gpa geothermobarometry applied to kokchetav diamond bearing rocks yielded a wide range of conditions t 700 c 1250 c and p 4 9 gpa our paper presents transmission electron microscopy studies with focused ion beam assistance that indicate that diamonds from marbles contain inclusions of aragonite caco 3 and magnesite mgco 3 and that aragonite and nitrogen bearing nanometric particles are associated with dislocations reflecting diamond growth at relatively high temperature conditions we determined the boundary of dolomite stability using the reaction camg co 3 2 dolomite caco 3 aragonite mgco 3 this allowed us to utilize available experimental data to evaluate the pressure at which diamond was crystallized taking into consideration uncertainties existing between experimental data produced in different laboratories we propose the pressure for kokchetav diamond crystallization to be 6 to 9 gpa this evaluation is based on the assumption that temperature was determined correctly as 980 c minimum and 1250 c maximum for diamond grade dolomitic marbles our data provide strong evidence that the metasedimentary rocks of the kokchetav massif containing diamonds were subducted to the depth of 190 280 km

direct observation and analysis of a trapped coh fluid growth medium in metamorphic diamond the mechanism by which diamonds grow in earth s mantle has been a subject of discussion for many years arguments have been advanced for growth from a melt from a coh fluid and in the solid state the discovery of microdiamonds within ultra high pressure terranes of continental collision settings re energized this debate because of their very different but well defined continental crust environment we report here the discovery of filled nanometric fluid bubbles in diamonds from marble of the kokchetav massif kazakhstan and the serendipitous measurement of their contents due to bursting of a bubble very shortly after a measurement of chemical composition in the transmission electron microscope thereby allowing immediate re analysis with exactly the same settings of all parameters of the microscope the chemical composition of the fluid is c h o cl s ca fe and k the direct observation and composition of a low viscosity trapped fluid in microdiamond unambiguously establish their fluid growth medium

nanometer size p k rich silica glass former melt inclusions in microdiamond from the gneisses of kokchetav and erzgebirge massifs diversified characteristics of the formation media of metamorphic microdiamond in uhp rocks due to host rock buffering abstract nanometer size p k rich silica glass former melt inclusions were identified within metamorphic microdiamonds from garnets of ultrahigh pressure uhp gneisses of the kokchetav and the erzgebirge massifs by analytical electron microscopy aem the chemical characteristics of these inclusions within microdiamonds are surprisingly similar among various gneissic rocks from both kokchetav and erzgebirge but are significantly different from the si poor ultrapotassic fluid inclusions within microdiamonds from garnets of the kokchetav uhp marble these contrasting findings not only provide constraints on the characteristics compositions of the formation media of metamorphic microdiamonds but also imply that the formation media must have been buffered by the hosting rocks resulting in the observed diversities as reported here in addition depending on the rock types and thus on the nature of the formation media from which metamorphic microdiamonds were formed the respective characteristic morphologies of the microdiamonds differ the p k rich silica melt tends to form octahedral or cubo octahedral microdiamonds within garnet in gneissic rocks whereas the si poor ultrapotassic fluid tends to form spheroids cuboid microdiamonds with rugged surfaces within garnet in marble consequently the buffered media in hosting rocks played a decisive role in determining the different morphologies and growth rates mechanisms of metamorphic microdiamonds in general

ultra high pressure metamorphism and orogenesis an alpine perspective article i nfo the pressure temperature time deformation evolution of the high to ultra high pressure units of the western alps has been progressively refined in the last 40 years leading to several paradigm shifts in the understanding of orogenesis this set of information combined with cretaceous tertiary plate kinematic reconstructions and mesozoic palaeogeography indicates that the western alps represent the amalgamation of a cretaceous and an eocene orogen which developed at the expense of the adriatic and european rifted margins respectively in the cretaceous nne directed drift of the adriatic plate parallel to the inherited jurassic structural trends led to the development of a highly oblique subduction boundary in this setting the canavese zone and parts of the sesia zone derived from the hyper extended adriatic margin underwent deformation and metamorphism at conditions ranging from sub greenschist to eclogite facies a lower eocene switch to nnw directed motion perpendicular to the rift related jurassic structural trends culminated in the collision between the proto alps and the brianconnais block at ca 44 ma as a result the brianconnais domain and parts of its hyper extended margin preserved in the u hp piemonte units were accreted to the orogen continued convergence was subsequently accommodated by subduction of the more external valaisan basin and of the thinned european margin the arrival of thick european continental crust at the subduction zone at ca 35 30 ma marked the onset of the final continental collision to a first order the orogen grew through the progressive episodic accretion of units located towards north westerly positions accretion of subducting units at the front of the orogen was coeval with kinematic reworking of tectonic contacts in the hangingwall units locally resulting in renewed deformation metamorphism

shrimp zircon u pb ages of eclogite and orthogneiss from sulu ultrahigh pressure zone in yangkou area eastern china we report shrimp u pb age of zircons in four samples of eclogite and one sample of orthogneiss from sulu ultrahigh pressure uhp zone in yangkou area eastern china uhp rocks are distributed along the sulu orogenic belt suturing north china block with south china block in yangkou area uhp unit is well exposed for about 200 m along yangkou beach section and consists mainly of blocks or lenses of ultramafic rocks and eclogite together with para and orthogneiss which are highly sheared partly zircon grains examined in this study from eclogite show oscillatory zoning and overgrowth texture in cl images and most of the grains have high th u ratio ranging from 0 8 to 2 1 indicating an igneous origin the weighted mean 206pb 238u ages of zircons from the four samples range from 690 to 734 ma these ages can be correlated to the magmatic stage of the protoliths in rare cases zircon grains possess a narrow rim with very low th u ratio 0 02 epma u th total pb dating of such rim yields younger ages that range from 240 to 405 ma marking the metamorphic stage on the other hand zircons from the orthogneiss show irregular shape and zoning with inclusion rich core and inclusion free rim these grains of zircon yield u pb discordia intercept ages of 226 63 ma and 714 110 ma mswd 0 78 bulk of the areas of the rims rim of the zircons demonstrate younger 206pb 238u ages close to the upper intercept with low th u ratio 0 20 indicating their metamorphic origin in contrast the cores show older 206pb 238u ages close to lower intercept and high th u ratio of 0 14 5 25 indicating their igneous origin the upper intercept age is also commonly noted in zircons from eclogite our results suggest a bimodal igneous activity along this zone during the neoproterozoic probably related to the rifting of the rodinia supercontinent

decrepitated uhp fluid inclusions about diverse phase assemblages and extreme decompression rates erzgebirge germany minute polyphase inclusions in garnet of quartzofeldspathic rocks saidenbachite from the saxonian erzgebirge germany contain microdiamond or graphite phlogopite quartz paragonite phengite and other minerals in minor amounts these inclusions are interpreted to represent an original dense coh silicate fluid trapped in crystallizing garnet at depths of 150 km inspection of the inclusion population in a single garnet by sem reveals two characteristic features i the shape of most inclusions indicates healed radial cracks in the host garnet and thus the buildup of a significant differential pressure p i e a contrast in pressure between the inclusion pi and the host mineral pe the mineral assemblages sealing the cracks and showing an equilibrated microstructure indicate temperatures of 750 50 c and pressures below 2 5 gpa ii the diverse types of inclusions appear to be randomly distributed in the garnet host thus the variable phase assemblages do not reflect a compositional evolution of the fluid trapped in the garnet combining observations i and ii we propose that the diversity of the phase assemblage in the inclusions is the result of decrepitation at different times and thus of distinct histories of pi as p at decrepitation is primarily controlled by inclusion size and shape applying a flow law for dislocation creep of garnet a low strength of garnet at 750 50 c for low geological strain rates is predicted thus differential pressure should have been kept low i e pi pe by continuous stretching of the inclusion for typical exhumation rates of metamorphic rocks to attain the differential pressure pi pe required for catastrophic brittle failure of the garnet host the decompression rate must have been extremely high as a robust lower bound a minimum exhumation rate on the order of 100 m year 1 is suggested which corresponds to ascent rates of magma

a 3 800 million year isotopic record of life from carbon in sedimentary rocks an increased ratio of 12c to 13c an indicator of the principal carbon fixing reaction of photosynthesis is found in sedimentary organic matter dating back to almost four thousand million years ago a sign of prolific microbial life not long after the earth s formation partial biological control of the terrestrial carbon cycle must have been established very early and was in full operation when the oldest sediments were formed

coesite in clinopyroxene in the caledonides and its implications for geodynamics coesite is reported for the first time from the caledonide orogen it occurs as inclusions in clinopyroxene in the dolomite eclogite at grytting norway and provides valuable new evidence to support the hypothesis of extremely high pressure 30 kbar in certain norwegian eclogites this finding has implications for the geodynamics and kinetics of the concepts of microscale intracrystalline tectonic overpressure and of macroscale local or regional tectonic overpressure and for the hypotheses of subduction and obduction involving a more than 100km vertical component of transport

discovery of metamorphic diamonds in central china an indication of a 4000 km long zone of deep subduction resulting from multiple continental collisions the central orogenic belt cob of china is a major continental collision zone that contains extensive outcrops of deeply subducted and exhumed rocks at both the eastern and the western end of the belt here we report discovery of microdiamonds from both eclogites and felsic gneisses in the north qinling zone in the central portion of the cob this discovery demonstrates that the country rocks of continental affinity shared in the ultra high pressure metamorphic uhpm event and provides a bridge connecting the two previously recognized uhpm terranes thereby establishing the existence of a uhpm belt extending more than 4000 km geochronological dating yields early palaeozoic ages in the west and early mesozoic ages in the east recording two separate continental collisions overprinted within the cob occurrence of uhp metamorphism during recurrent continental collision here and in the alps suggests that deep subduction of continental material during such collisions is probably common rather than exceptional with significant implications for processes of plate tectonic reorganization and mantle mixing over time

focused ion beam technique and transmission electron microscope studies of microdiamonds from the saxonian erzgebirge germany a focused ion beam of ga ions is a relatively new technique that has been developed for microelectronic industries now researchers of the earth sciences find it to be a promising tool for studying various geological materials using the fib technique and an fei strata db 235 dual beam system we have successfully prepared several electrontransparent foils which crossed wm sized diamonds included in host minerals such as zircon and garnet from quartzofeldspathic rocks of the saxonian erzgebirge germany scanning and transmission electron microscopy applied to these foils revealed that the diamonds contain crystalline nanometric inclusions these inclusions consist of minerals of known stoichiometries such as sio2 and al2sio5 whereas others are characterized by different combinations of si k p ti and fe in the presence of oxygen stoichiometries are not clear at this stage of research one suite of inclusions is assumed to be represented by archerite kh2po4 which is known to be stable at pressures of 4 22 gpa and one nanocrystal containing pb oxygen and carbon is interpreted to be pbxoy or pbco3 along with solid crystalline inclusions the diamonds contain cavities filled by liquid gas that escaped during sample preparation these are associated with dislocations of diamond growth our data are consistent with the concept of diamond crystallization from a coh rich multicomponent supercritical fluid and suggest that the composition of such a fluid is more consistent with a local crustal source rather than that of a mantle origin 2003 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

zircon response to diamond pressure metamorphism in the kokchetav massif ussr ultrahigh pressure metamorphism of the diamond bearing gneisses in the kokchetav massif ussr has been dated at 530 7 ma 2 sgr by shrimp ion microprobe analysis of metamorphic zircons zircon xenocrysts as old as 2000 ma have retained original isotopic compositions through the extreme metamorphic conditions and indicate that the protolith that was buried to diamond forming pressures included early proterozoic components highly variable reset ting of u pb isotopic systems in zircon xenocrysts at the time of metamorphism suggests that diffusive lead loss had commenced but was incomplete a disequilibrium observation consistent with relatively transient exposure of the rocks to extreme crustal depths

the effects of transverse bed topography variations in ice flow models 1 a suite of ice flow models is subject to a performance test designed to investigate treatment of flow over variable basal topography using transfer functions developed by gudmundsson 2003 and numerical models of various complexity this study demonstrates that a widely used flowband model has strong limitations associated with its underlying assumptions and thus should be applied only in specific geometrical settings its performance can be significantly improved by using the laterally averaged basal topography instead of centerline topography in applications where spatial variability of flow fields is important hybrid ice flow models can be a viable alternative to flowband models in addition analysis of horizontal distributions of the various ice flow characteristics e g surface elevation velocity and horizontal stress components shows that field observations that focus on assessing these parameters only along the centerline of ice flow could be misleading these results also suggest that such spatial variability needs to be taken into account when designing field surveys of ice flow

diamond and coesite discovered in saxony type granulite solution to the variscan garnet peridotite enigma diamond and coesite were discovered in situ as inclusions in garnet kyanite and zircon in high pressure granulites from northern bohemian massif these continental crustal rocks were therefore subducted to depths of c 140 km which also explains their common association with mantle garnet bearing peridotites models involving crustal thickening for these high pressure granulites need to be significantly modified whole variscan belt with numerous hp granulite occurrences can represent a large ultrahigh pressure terrain

synthesis of skeletal diamonds implications for microdiamond formation in orogenic belts diamond was synthesized at high temperature and pressure in a walker style multianvil apparatus from various supercritical c o h rich fluid compositional systems depending on the type and amount of impurities added to the system diamonds of vary ing morphology and bearing solid oxide inclusions were found within the run product these characteristics bear a striking re semblance to metamorphic microdiamonds recovered from the kokchetav massif kazakhstan these natural diamonds share mor phological traits with our synthesized diamonds and both the nat ural and synthesized diamonds contain similar solid oxide inclu sions our data favor formation of kokchetav diamonds via crystallization from a supercritical c o h fluid rather than from carbonate or carbonatite melt as others have suggested

cassiterite u pb geochronology constrains magmatic hydrothermal evolution in complex evolved granite systems the classic erzgebirge tin province saxony and bohemia

unusual micro and nano inclusions in diamonds from the juina area brazil abstract a series of uncommon micro and nano inclusions has been identified in diamonds from the rio soriso placer deposit in mato grosso state brazil the micro inclusions are variable in size from 1 to 300 m usually they are polymineralic being formed predominantly by intergrowths of carbonates silicates and other minerals carbonates are represented mostly by dolomite and occasionally by calcite silicates found are coesite wollastonite ii cuspidine and monticellite sulphides and ilmenite form micro inclusions as well nano inclusions are different from micro inclusions not only in size not exceeding 200 nm they are usually included in micro inclusions among nano inclusions halides nacl kcl cacl2 and pbcl2 anhydrite spinel phlogopite pbo2 tio2 with an pbo2 structure native fe and other phases are identified all these minerals are of the eclogitic association they are either associated with coesite or are included in a diamond with a light organic carbon isotopic composition with 13c from 14 to 25 pdb this confirms our earlier conclusion that diamonds from the juina area may have formed as a result of subduction of the crustal material to depths of at least the lower transition zone or even the lower mantle the pressure estimates for the investigated diamonds vary in a range from 3 to 10 gpa an interesting assemblage of calcite cuspidine wollastonite monticellite fluid identified in one of the studied diamonds is considered as a product of a reaction of wollastonite fluid forming cuspidine monticellite the presence of numerous pores cavities and bubbles in mineral inclusions and identification of an association of volatile containing mineral inclusions such as halides nacl kcl cacl2 and pbcl2 fluorine containing silicate cuspidine and phlogopite emphasize the important role of volatiles particularly chlorine and fluorine in the formation of the diamonds

raman confirmation of microdiamond in the svartberget fe ti type garnet peridotite western gneiss region western norway introductionvestiges of ultra high pressure meta morphism uhpm havebeenfoundincontinental and oceanic rocks of dif ferentorogensworldwide smith 1988 coleman and wang 1995 carswelland compagnoni 2003 indirectuhpmevidencecomesfromtheappli cation of geothermobarometric tech niques lappin and smith 1978 ravna krogh and paquin 2003 ap plied to uhpm mineral assemblagesand directly from mineralogical indi cators such as coesite diamond andmajoritic garnet chopin 1984 smith 1984 sobolev and shatsky 1990 do brzhinetskaya et al 1995 van roer mund and drury 1998 nasdala andmassonne 2000 mposkos andkosto poulos 2001 van roermund et al 2002 godard et al 2003 neverthe less the mechanisms responsible forthe formation preservation and exhu mation of uhpm rocksin orogens arestill not fully understood the volume and spatial distributionof uhpm rocks within uhpm terr anes including the observed contrastin metamorphic grade between rocksthat contain uhpm minerals andadjacent country rocks that do notcontain them have led to di erentexplanations concerning the origin emplacement and preservation ofthese rocks to explain the occur rence volume and areal extent ofuhpm rocks in the western gneissregion wgr the following mecha nisms that assume a continental sub duction scenario have been proposed a the existence of major and orminor post uhpm tectonic contactssuch as nappes and or tectonic mel anges e g lappin and smith 1978 smith 1984 1988 wain 1997 cuth bert et al 2000 terry and robinson 2003 2004 or b the presence of uids and or deformation leading todi erential prograde or retrogradereactions and di erences in reaction kinetics between rock types austr heim et al 1997 cuthbert et al 2000 wain et al 2001 carswell andcuthbert 2003 cuthbert and car swell 2003 hypotheses that do notnecessarily involve continental sub duction may involve local regional tectonic overpressure in rocks smith 1984 mancktelow 1993 petrini and podladchikov 2000 it isconsidered here that the volume andareal extent of uhpm domains withina single metamorphic terrain are thusimportant parameters to determine asthey can modify or identify the loca tions of inferred or observed tectoniccontacts the relations between uidsand uhpm and or the scales atwhich continental crust subductionor tectonic overpressure might act here we report raman data thatcon rm the previously reported butnot proven presence of microdia monds at the svartberget uhpmlocality in the wgr of norway vrijmoed et al 2006 micro diamond con rmation is consistentwith the results of vrijmoed et al 2006 that the volume and arealextent of the northern uhpm domainof the wgr fig 1 are considerablyexpanded eastwards and followingthe reasoning in the paragraph above the new microdiamond nding willput important constraints on themodels described above ultra high pressure metamorphismin the western gneiss regionthe wgr represents a window inthe scandinavian caledonides wherescandian reworked high grade gneis sic rocks of proterozoic age presum ably belonging to the baltic plate are exposed in addition variableamounts of metadolerites amphi abstract

micrometer scale cavities in fibrous and cloudy diamonds a glance into diamond dissolution events abstract micrometer sized internal cavities in diamonds preserve evidence of diamond dissolution events combining the methods of focused ion beam fib sample preparation and transmission electron microscopy tem enables these features to be studied in detail micrometer scale cavities are found in the inner parts of fibrous and cloudy kimberlitic diamonds their filling consists of amorphous matrix secondary nano crystals volatiles and in some cases larger resorbed crystals trapped minerals include corundum kappa alumina quartz olivine moissanite 6h and ca mg carbonates this is the first observation of kappa alumina in nature secondary nano minerals are observed within the amorphous matrix and include carbonates al oxide fluorite ilmenite and secondary diamond crystals the amorphous matrix is spongy and its composition is dominated by amorphous carbon nitrogen chlorine and also contains water when no crystalline phases are observed the matrix is also enriched in alumina silica and in some cases calcium we propose that micrometer scale cavities in diamonds form during dissolution events induced by the introduction of oxidizing hydrous fluids into the diamond growth area hydrous fluids are the main dissolving agents for most kimberlitic diamonds fedortchouk y canil d semenets e 2007 mechanisms of diamond oxidation and their bearing on the fluid composition in kimberlite magmas am mineral 92 1200 1212 at diamond forming conditions silica and alumina are enriched in hydrous fluids that are in equilibrium with eclogites kessel r ulmer p pettke t schmidt m w thompson a b 2005 the water basalt system at 4 to 6 gpa phase relations and second critical endpoint in a k free eclogite at 700 to 1400 c earth planet sci lett 237 873 892 this is consistent with the increased solubility of alumina with increased pressure and temperature in the na cl bearing fluids manning c e 2006 mobilizing aluminum in crustal and mantle fluids j geochem explor 89 251 253 manning c e 2007 solubility of corundum kyanite in h2o at 700c and 10 kbar evidence for al si complexing at high pressure and temperature geofluids 7 258 269 additionally hydrous fluids may leach grain boundaries that are enriched in alumina in peridotitic environments hiraga t anderson i m kohlstedt d l 2004 grain boundaries as reservoirs of incompatible elements in the earth s mantle nature 427 699 703 wirth r 1996 thin amorphous films 1 2 nm at olivine grain boundaries in mantle xenoliths from san carlos arizona contrib mineral petrol 124 44 54 diamond dissolution will form oxidized carbon species and may decrease the solubility of silica and alumina in the dissolving agent leading to their precipitation diamond forming fluids that are trapped in sub micrometer inclusions in the same fibrous diamonds are the dominant fluid component in the diamond growth area corrosive hydrous fluids are less common and appear as short discrete events followed by the return of the common diamond forming fluids and continued diamond precipitation

pre collisional high pressure metamorphism and nappe tectonics at active continental margins a numerical simulation the evolution of a subduction channel and orogenic wedge is simulated in 2d for an active continental margin with p t paths being displayed for selected markers in our simulation subduction erosion affects the active margin and a structural pattern develops within a few tens of millions of years with four zones from the trench into the forearc i an accretionary complex of low grade metamorphic sedimentary material ii a wedge of nappes with alternating upper and lower crustal provenance and minor interleaving of oceanic or hydrated mantle material iii a megascale melange composed of high pressure hp and ultra high pressure uhp metamorphic rocks extruded from the subduction channel and iv the upward tilted frontal part of the remaining lid the p t paths and time scales correspond to those typically recorded in orogenic belts the simulation shows that hp uhp metamorphism of continental crust does not necessarily indicate collision but that the material can be derived from the active margin by subduction erosion and extruded from the subduction channel beneath the forearc during ongoing subduction

raman micro spectroscopy on diamond graphite and other carbon polymorphs from the ultrahigh pressure metamorphic kimi complex of the rhodope metamorphic province ne greece raman micro spectroscopy was applied on carbon inclusions in garnet porphyroblasts from kyanite biotite garnet schists of the rhodope metamorphic province rmp ne greece diamond and cuboids of poorly to highly ordered graphite were identified either as single phase inclusions or as polyphase inclusions along with co2 and or carbonates calcite magnesian calcite questionable raman bands that may be assigned to other c phases nanodiamond lonsdaleite a different c polymorph have been observed the presence of diamond confirms beyond any doubt the ultrahigh pressure uhp metamorphism reported by mposkos and kostopoulos 1 e mposkos d kostopoulos diamond former coesite and supersilisic garnet in metasedimentary rocks from the greek rhodope a new ultrahigh pressure metamorphic province established earth planet sci lett 192 2001 497 506 in the rmp cuboid graphite showing variable degree of disordering most probably formed after diamond the possible involvement of co2 and or c o h fluids in the formation of diamond is discussed

linking the sulu uhp belt to the korean peninsula evidence from eclogite precambrian basement and paleozoic sedimentary basins abstract considerable debate on whether and how the sulu orogenic belt extends eastward to the korean peninsula has remained over the past decade new results reported here include the following 1 an eclogite and retrograded eclogite bearing complex hongseong complex is discovered in south korea in which the eclogite occurs as lenses in circa 810 820 ma granitic gneiss shrimp zircon dating of the eclogite yields 230 ma for the metamorphic age and 880 ma for the protolith age 2 the basement of the rangnim gyeonggi and yeongnam massifs have affinities to the basement of the north china block ncb however the gyeonggi massif encloses a minor amount of large or small slabs of the hongseong complex that are similar to the rocks of the sulu belt 3 two main paleozoic basins within the rangnim and gyeonggi massifs have a similar paleozoic tectono stratigraphy to the ncb 4 the imjingang and ogcheon belts do not exhibit any metamorphic characteristics of collisional orogenic belts based on these facts we propose a crustal detachment and thrust model and suggest that the collision belt between the yangtze block yb and ncb sino korea craton is preserved along the western margin of the korean peninsula the lower part of the uhp metamorphosed lithosphere of the yb was subducted under the korean peninsula and not uplifted to the surface the lower crust of the yb the hongseong complex was detached from the subducted lithosphere and thrust over the korean peninsula and inserted into the basement rocks of the gyeonggi massif the upper crust of the yb possibly was detached from the lower crust and overthrusted along the honam and chugaryong shear zones the imjingang and ogcheon belts possibly represent the detached upper crust of yb and their present occurrences are controlled by a mesozoic strike slip shear structure all these detached lower and upper crustal slabs were strongly deformed during the late jurassic and early cretaceous tectonic event leading to their present geological distribution and characteristics

diamond inclusions in garnets from metamorphic rocks a new environment for diamond formation diamonds commonly occur in kimberlites lamproites and alluvial sediments derived from these rocks more recently diamonds or their graphite pseudomorphs have been discovered in ultramafic massifs1 and picrites2 here we report the occurrence of diamonds in situ in crustal rocks highly retrograded high pressure metamorphic garnet pyroxene and pyroxene carbonate garnet rocks biotite gneisses and schists from the kokchetav massif northern kazakhstan ussr the diamonds are cubo octahedral averaging 12 m in size and occur in zircons and with euhedral graphite as inclusions in unzoned garnets we believe that the zircon and garnet matrices protected these diamonds from retrogressive transformation to graphite mica rutile titanite clinopyroxene kyanite and zircon also occur as inclusions in garnet often intergrown with the diamonds equilibration relations of inclusions and host garnets indicate that both diamonds and graphite crystallized from a fluid phase under static conditions at pressures of 40 kbar and temperatures 900 1 000 c

microdiamonds frontier of ultrahigh pressure metamorphism a review abstract this is a comprehensive review paper devoted to microdiamonds from ultrahigh pressure metamorphic uhpm terranes incorporated in orogenic belts formed at convergent plate boundaries in paleozoic mesozoic alpine time when in 1980 the first small diamonds were discovered within amphibolite granulate facies metamorphic rocks it came as a great surprise that buoyant continental crust could be subducted to depths of hundreds of kilometers and then subsequently exhumed since then much progress has been made in understanding the mechanism of these diamonds formation and the number of new diamond bearing uhpm terranes was significantly increased especially within european orogenes moreover new variations in tectonic settings in which uhp rocks can be formed and exhumed came to the attention of geologists simply due to the finding of diamonds in places previously forbidden for their formation e g oceanic islands ophiolites and forearc environments over the past decade the rapidly moving technological advancement has made it possible to examine microdiamonds in detail and to learn that part of them has a polycrystalline nature that they contain nanometric multiphase inclusions of crystalline and fluid phases and that they keep a crustal signature of carbon isotopes scanning and transmission electron microscopy focused ion beam techniques synchrotron infrared spectroscopy micro x ray diffraction and nano secondary ion mass spectrometry studies of these diamonds provide evidence that they keep traces of fluid originated from both crustal and mantle reservoirs and that they probably interacted with deep mantle plumes hypotheses proposed for diamond formation in subduction zones founded on both analytical and experimental studies are discussed the paper also emphasizes that the discovery of these microdiamonds as well as coesite triggered a major revision in the understanding of deep subduction processes leading to a clear realization of how continental materials can be recycled into the earth s mantle and geochemically rejuvenate it

diamond nucleation and growth by reduction of carbonate melts under high pressure and high temperature conditions we report for the first time experimental evidence for the nucleation and growth of diamonds from carbonatitic melts by reduction in reactions with silicon metal or silicon carbide experiments were carried out in the camg co 3 2 si and camg co 3 2 sic systems at 7 7 gpa and temperatures of 1500 1800 c no graphite was added to the run powder as a carbon source the carbonate bearing melts supply the carbon for diamond formation diamond grows spontaneously from the carbonatitic melt by reducing reactions camg co 3 2 2si camgsi 2 o 6 2c in the camg co 3 2 si system and camg co 3 2 2sic camgsi 2 o 6 4c in the camg co 3 2 sic system our results provide strong experimental support for the view that some natural diamonds crystallized from carbonatitic melts by metasomatic reducing reactions with mantle solid phases

coesite exsolution from supersilicic titanite in uhp marble from the kokchetav massif northern kazakhstan coesite exsolved from supersilicic titanite was discovered in an impure calcite marble at kumdy kol in the kokchetav uhp ultrahigh pressure metamorphic terrane northern kazakhstan this impure marble consists mainly of calcite k feldspar diopside and symplectites of diopside zoisite with minor amount of titanite phengite and garnet no diamond was found in the marble coesite and quartz which have needle or platy shapes measuring about 20 60 m in length occur as major exsolved phases in the cores and mantles of titanite crystals with minor calcite and apatite the strongest raman band for the coesite needles and plates was confirmed at about 524 cm 1 with a weak band at about 271 cm 1 to estimate the initial composition of the titanite before coesite exsolution exsolved phases were reintegrated by measuring their area fractions on digital images the highest excess si in titanite was thus determined to be 0 145 atoms per formula unit apfu this composition requires a pressure higher than 6 gpa on the basis of phase relations in the system catisio5 casi2o5 this pressure is consistent with other evidence of high pressure in the same marble such as 1 4 1 8 wt k2o and over 1000 ppm h2o in diopside supersilicic titanite and coesite exsolution also indicate that sio2 exsolution occurred in the coesite stability field during exhumation of the uhp metamorphic unit