Distribution of structural impurities and fluid microinclusions in cubic and coated diamond crystals from the Udachnaya pipe, Yakutia, Russia

Abstract

FTIR microspectroscopic data were used to construct two-dimension maps showing the distribution of structural impurities and mineral microinclusions in cubic and coated octahedral diamond crystals from the Udachnaya kimberlite pipe in Yakutia. Elevated concentrations of hydrogen and total nitrogen are detected in parts corresponding to the early growth of single-episode growth regions of diamond crystals. These concentrations decrease toward the peripheral portions of these regions. The microinclusions contain water and polyphase mineral associations that preserve a high residual pressure. Microinclusions in the coats of octahedral diamond crystals are dominated by silicates, in which the intensity of IR spectral bands increases toward the peripheries, whereas the cubes posses irregularly distributed domains rich in these phases. The carbonate phases of the microinclusions are distributed according to growth zones of the crystals, and their distribution is often not correlated with the concentrations of structural impurities. The facts that microinclusions in the diamond cuboids are dominated by carbonates and that the rims of the octahedra are dominated by silicates suggest that the diamonds crystallized from dominantly carbonate and silicate fluids/ melts, respectively. The chemical composition of the microinclusions point to an eclogitic paragenesis of the crystals. Facts are obtained that provide support for the earlier hypothesis that cubic diamond crystals and coated octahedral crystals grow at metasomatic interaction between deep fluids and eclogitic rocks in the lithospheric mantle.