Raman spectroscopy has been used for the identification of both common and uncommon minerals in melt inclusions in Group-I kimberlites from Siberia, Canada, SW Greenland and South Africa. The melt inclusions all contained high abundances of alkali-Ca carbonates, with varying proportions of cations, and Na–Ca–Ba sulphates. In accordance with its dry mineralogy, no hydrated carbonates or sulphates were detected in melt inclusions from the Udachnaya-East kimberlite. In contrast, the melt inclusions in kimberlites from Canada, South Africa and SW Greenland were found to contain bassanite, pirssonite, and hydromagnesite suggesting that greater amounts of water were present in their residual magmas. This suggests that enrichment in alkali carbonates and sulphates is widespread across a range of Group-I kimberlites and implies that they commonly have an alkali-, and sulphur-rich residual liquid.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Research Division:	Earth Sciences
Research Group:	Geology
Research Field:	Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology
Objective Division:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Group:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Field:	Expanding Knowledge in the Earth Sciences
UTAS Author:	Kamenetsky, VS (Professor Vadim Kamenetsky)
UTAS Author:	Kamenetsky, MB (Dr Maya Kamenetsky)
ID Code:	74072
Year Published:	2011
Web of Science® Times Cited:	29
Deposited By:	Centre for Ore Deposit Research - CODES CoE
Deposited On:	2011-11-10
Last Modified:	2013-11-06
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