Ferric iron content of mineral inclusions in diamonds from Sao Luiz: A view into the lower mantle

Catherine McCammon*, Mark Hutchison, Jeff Harris

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

116 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Mossbauer spectroscopy on inclusions in diamonds from Sao Luiz, Brazil, show that Mg,Fe)O inclusions contain little Fe3+ (Fe3+/ΣFe ≤ 7%), whereas inclusions with pyroxene composition (believed to have been originally in the perovskite structure) and tetragonal almandine-pyrope phase (TAPP) inclusions contain high relative amounts of Fe3+ (Fe3/ΣFe = 20 to 75%). These observations are consistent with high-pressure experiments on synthetic samples and support the idea that the inclusions originated in the lower mantle. Fe-Mg partitioning data for co-existing (Mg,Fe,Al)(Si,Al)O3- (Mg,Fe)O pairs also indicate that the phases were in equilibrium at the time of diamond formation in the lower mantle.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)434-436
Number of pages3
JournalScience
Volume278
Issue number5337
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 17 Oct 1997
Externally publishedYes

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