Constraints on diamond genesis from the study of the dependence of diamond properties on the composition of kimberlites and lamproites

Abstract

It was shown that the crystal morphology, content, and size of diamonds depend on the concentrations of silica, magnesium, calcium, and carbon dioxide in the host kimberlites and lamproites. The character of this dependence suggests that the viscosity of the initial melts of these rocks was the main control of the morphology and properties of diamond crystals and indicates a magmatic genesis for this mineral. Two genetic varieties of diamond crystals were distinguished: larger residual grains coeval with the formation of the sources of kimberlite and lamproite magmas during the slow high-pressure fractionation of the near-bottom peridotite layer of the global magma ocean and smaller early magmatic grains, which crystallized during the decompression-friction transformation of kimberlite and lamproite protoliths into magmas.