Geodynamic Evolution of the Western Part of the Russian Arctic and Its Diamond Potential

Abstract

The study of the geodynamic evolution of the Baltic Shield showed that the melts of diamondiferous kimberlites and related rocks were formed due to the pulling of “heavy” ferruginous sediments of the Early Proterozoic into subduction zones beneath the Archean cratons. Later, during the Neoproterozoic and Paleozoic stages of rifting, melts conserved in the lower crust and subcrustal lithosphere were able to penetrate into the near-surface zones of the crust and form magmatic complexes of alkaline–ultramafic and kimberlite magmatism. The authors showed that diamondiferous kimberlite and lamproite explosion pipes, as well as related carbonatite and alkaline–ultramafic intrusions, are mainly located above the subduction zones of the Svecofennian (Karelian) plates, which functioned about 2.0–1.8 Ga ago. At the same time, alkaline ultramafic intrusions and (sodium) carbonatites are located closest to the front of the subduction zone of Proterozoic plates (from 100 to 200–300 km). Then (at a distance of 200 to 400 km), there is a zone of location of calcite carbonatites and melilitites, and sometimes nondiamondiferous kimberlites. Diamondiferous kimberlite and lamproite diatremes are located farther than other similar formations approximately 300 to 600–650 km from its front. Such a regular spatial arrangement of magmatic complexes of a single series unambiguously indicates a change in depth of their origin. The farther from the surface boundary of the paleosubduction zone the magmatic bodies are located, the deeper the facies representing them.