Anticorrelation between low δ13C of eclogitic diamonds and high δ18O of their coesite and garnet inclusions requires a subduction origin
Abstract
Diamond is essentially impermeable and unreactive under many conditions, and tiny mineral inclusions within natural diamonds can faithfully preserve information on the chemical and physical conditions during diamond growth. The stable isotope ratios of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur in diamonds and their mineral inclusions have been used to constrain models of diamond formation, but interpretations of the data have differed dramatically. The crux of the controversy lies in the interpretation of the carbon isotope ratios of eclogite-suite diamonds, which range well outside those expected for typical mantle materials such as peridotites, basalts, and carbonatites. Proposed explanations for these anomalous carbon isotope ratios include derivation from primordial mantle inhomogeneities, fractionated mantle fluids, and subducted biogenic carbon. Working with samples from three continents, we have analyzed the carbon isotope compositions of eclogite-suite diamonds and the oxygen isotope composition of their mineral inclusions, primarily by ion microprobe methods. We have discovered a previously unrecognized, remarkably consistent anticorrelation between these two isotopic systems, in that virtually all diamonds with anomalously low carbon isotope ratios have silicate inclusions with anomalously high oxygen isotope ratios. This is a fundamental observation that can only be explained by formation of eclogite-suite diamonds through subduction of seafloor altered basalt, admixed with marine biogenic carbon, into the field of diamond stability.
Repository Citation
Schulze, Daniel J., Ben Harte, Edinburgh Ion Microprobe Facility staff, F. Zeb Page, et al. 2013. "Anticorrelation between low δ13C of eclogitic diamonds and high δ18O of their coesite and garnet inclusions requires a subduction origin." Geology 41(4): 455-458.
Publisher
Geological Society of America
Publication Date
2-20-2013
Publication Title
Geology
Department
Geology
Document Type
Article
DOI
https://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G33839.1
Keywords
Carbon isotope, Stable isotopes, Oxygen, Mantle, Lithosphere, Kimberlites, Botswana, Orapa
Language
English
Format
text
