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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
general
Diamonds sampled by plumes from the core-mantle boundary
Nature, Volume 466, No. 7304, Year 2010
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Description
Diamonds are formed under high pressuremore than150 kilometres deep in the Earths mantle and are brought to the surface mainly by volcanic rocks called kimberlites. Several thousand kimberlites have been mapped on various scales1-4, but it is the distribution of kimberlites in the very old cratons (stable areas of the continental lithosphere that aremore than2.5billion yearsoldand300kilometres thick or more5) that have generated the most interest, because kimberlites from those areas are themajor carriers of economically viable diamond resources. Kimberlites, which are themselves derived from depths of more than 150 kilometres, provide invaluable information on the composition of the deep subcontinental mantle lithosphere, and on melting and metasomatic processes at or near the interface with the underlying flowing mantle. Here we use plate reconstructions and tomographic images to show that the edges of the largest heterogeneities in the deepest mantle, stable for at least 200 million years and possibly for 540 million years, seem to have controlled the eruption of most Phanerozoic kimberlites. We infer that future exploration for kimberlites and their included diamonds should therefore be concentrated in continents with old cratons that once overlay these plume-generation zones at the core-mantle boundary. © 2010 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.
Authors & Co-Authors
Torsvik, Trond H.
Norway, Oslo
Universitetet I Oslo
Norway, Trondheim
Geological Survey of Norway
South Africa, Johannesburg
University of the Witwatersrand
Burke, Kevin C.
South Africa, Johannesburg
University of the Witwatersrand
United States, Houston
University of Houston
Steinberger, Bernhard
Norway, Oslo
Universitetet I Oslo
Norway, Trondheim
Geological Survey of Norway
Germany, Potsdam
Deutsches Geoforschungszentrum Gfz
Webb, Susan J.
South Africa, Johannesburg
University of the Witwatersrand
Ashwal, Lew D.
South Africa, Johannesburg
University of the Witwatersrand
Statistics
Citations: 397
Authors: 5
Affiliations: 5
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1038/nature09216
ISSN:
00280836
e-ISSN:
14764687