Abstract
Three major components with different tectonic settings illustrate the diamond potential of Zimbabwe. These are regions that kimberlites have intruded: the stable Archaean craton, the Archaean to Proterozoic Limpopo belt, and the Mesozoic rift basin of the Zambezi Valley. Geotectonic considerations, supported by the presence of kimberlite mantle minerals, lead to the prediction that the Archaean craton should have a thick mantle root with some diamond potential. This mantle lithosphere is less diamondiferous and is characterized by garnets that are less Ca-depleted than those from beneath other Archaean cratons, such as the Kaapvaal craton, suggesting the presence of a correspondingly less-depleted peridotite. Kimberlite mantle minerals show that the Limpopo belt has a thick, diamondiferous (and probably ancient) mantle root containing highly Ca-depleted peridotite. This is considered to have formed prior to, and been preserved beneath, the Limpopo belt. As predicted by the rifting history, the Zambezi Va...
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