Possibly diamond-bearing mantle peridotites and podiform chromitites in the Luobusa and Donqiao ophiolites, Tibet

Abstract

The Luobusa ophiolite of the Yarlung–Zangbo (southern Tibet) suture zone and the Donqiao ophiolite of the Bangong–Nujiang (northern Tibet) suture zone are allochthonous bodies that contain possibly diamond-bearing mantle peridotites and podiform chromitites. The mantle sections in both massifs consist chiefly of harzburgite and diopside-bearing harzburgite with abundant lenses of dunite and chromitite. These ultramafic rocks are more strongly depleted than typical abyssal peridotites and their whole-rock and mineral chemistries suggest formation above a subduction zone. An unusual mineral association (diamond, SiC, graphite, native chromium, Ni–Fe alloy, Cr2+-bearing chromite), indicating a high-pressure, reducing environment, occurs in both the peridotites and chromitites. We suggest that these ophiolites were generated originally in a suprasubduction zone environment and were later carried deep into the mantle along a second subduction zone, at which time the diamonds and other high-pressure minerals were formed. It is not yet clear whether the diamonds formed by high-pressure metamorphism of the oceanic crust or by crystallization from mantle melts, but their occurrence in chromitites and harzburgites suggests a metamorphic origin. During the collision of India with the Eurasian plate, the mantle sections were tectonically emplaced at shallow crustal levels rapidly enough to preserve the diamonds.