Abstract
The search for diamonds in Greenland has resulted in the discovery of many new dykes of kimberlite and ultramafic lamprophyre and, most importantly, in the acquisition of a wealth of chemical data on rocks and minerals representing mantle material entrained by the dyke magmas. The discovery of a diamondiferous sheet at Garnet Lake in southern West Greenland stimulated the research (Hutchison 2005). Over the past five to ten years, the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland together with the Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum in Greenland and international research groups have acquired, processed and interpreted data with the objective of identifying diamond-favourable regimes within the lithospheric mantle below the Archaean craton in West Greenland. Here we present mineral data from drift samples that allow us to identify where mantle conditions in terms of lithology and depth may be favourable for the occurrence of diamonds.
Highlights
The search for diamonds in Greenland has resulted in the discovery of many new dykes of kimberlite and ultramafic lamprophyre and, most importantly, in the acquisition of a wealth of chemical data on rocks and minerals representing mantle material entrained by the dyke magmas
Ultramafic dykes of the same age in Labrador, Canada (Tappe et al 2006) show that the magmatism extended into the western part of Laurentia, the contiguous continent comprising North America and Greenland
In 2004 Hudson Resources Inc., guided by drift samples with an abundance of garnets derived from the diamond-stable mantle, discovered a significant amount of diamonds hosted in carbonatite-rich ultramafic rocks at Garnet Lake (Fig. 1) in the Sarfartoq region (Hutchison 2005)
Summary
Estimated garnet equilibrium temperature °C nounced rifting took place at the northern margin of Laurentia and resulted in the intrusion of a prominent basaltic dyke swarm in North-West Greenland and northern Baffin Land (Dawes 2006)
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