Abstract
Exploration for diamonds in West Greenland has experienced a major boost within the last decade following the establishment of world-class diamond mines within the nearby Slave Province of the Canadian Arctic. Numerous companies have active programmes of diamond exploration and increasingly larger diamonds have been discovered, notably a 2.392 carat dodecahedral stone recovered by the Canadian exploration company Hudson Resources Inc. in January 2007. The Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) is currently carrying out several studies aimed at understanding the petrogenesis of diamondiferous kimberlites in Greenland and the physical and chemical properties of their associated mantle source regions (e.g. Hutchison 2005; Nielsen & Jensen 2005).
Highlights
IntroductionXenoliths have been sampled from kimberlites from two areas in South-West Greenland: Midternæs and Pyramidefjeld (Fig. 1)
Exploration for diamonds in West Greenland has experienced a major boost within the last decade following the establishment of world-class diamond mines within the nearby Slave Province of the Canadian Arctic
This study aims to constrain the mantle geotherm for the southern extent of the North Atlantic Craton in Greenland by applying three-phase geothermobarometry calculations using chemical compositions of clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene and garnet from four-phase kimberlite-hosted lherzolite xenoliths
Summary
Xenoliths have been sampled from kimberlites from two areas in South-West Greenland: Midternæs and Pyramidefjeld (Fig. 1). The Precambrian Pyramidefjeld granite complex and adjacent Archaean granodioritic gneisses are host to several kimberlite sheets located at various levels between 400 and 900 m elevation (Fig. 1A; Andrews & Emeleus 1971, 1975). Field observations of the range of orientations of intrusive bodies do not appear to suggest a particular focal point which could be a likely location for an intrusive centre such as a pipe This observation is in line with what is seen throughout West Greenland where kimberlite emplacement appears as dykes and sills (Larsen & Rex 1992) rather than the pipes and blows which are common in other world-wide settings. Xenoliths are less abundant on average than in Pyramidefjeld kimberlites, but a similar variety and proportion of rock types and infrequent occurrence of garnet is observed
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