Criteries and prospects of diamonds of the Vitebsk granulite massif

Abstract

The article describes the history of studying the diamond content of tectonic structures of the territory of Belarus. Based on the results of magnetometric, mineralogical, tectonic studies carried out by industrial geologists and scientists over the past 50 years, new scientifically substantiated criteria for the search for explosion pipes have been developed using Clifford’s rule, according to which kimberlite explosion pipes are developed within the Archean cratons, where the thickness of the lithosphere is 175–270 km, and are absent in the zones of Early Proterozoic stabilisation and tectonomagmatic activation. Explosion tubes on the African-Arabian, East Siberian, Sino-Korean and East European platforms demonstrate their confinement to the Archean cratons and may be associated with zones of paleosubduction of the Proterozoic oceanic crust beneath the Archean cratons. Based on this, the authors scientifically substantiated the hypothesis that during the closure of the Early Proterozoic paleoocean separating the Fenno-Scandinavian craton from the Volga-Ural and Sarmatian cratons, subduction of the younger crust took place under these cratons, the southwestern corner of which on the territory of Belarus is the Vitebsk granulite massif. The article concludes that the Vitebsk granulite massif is the most promising in terms of diamond-bearing on the territory of Belarus, and within its limits – the Smolensk regional deep fault at the intersection of this fault of northeastern striking with the Odessa-Gomel regional deep fault of submeridional striking south of the city of Orsha. Recommendations are given for further study of promising areas in order to determine their diamond content.