Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-qlrfm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-08T17:42:23.984Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Possible origins of α-damage in diamonds from kimberlite and alluvial sources

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

E. R. Vance ,
J. W. Harris  and
H. J. Milledge
E. R. Vance
Affiliation:
Chemistry Department, University College, Gower Street, London W.C.I
J. W. Harris
Affiliation:
Chemistry Department, University College, Gower Street, London W.C.I
H. J. Milledge
Affiliation:
Chemistry Department, University College, Gower Street, London W.C.I
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Heating experiments provide strong evidence that the transparent green coats on some diamonds from each of many localities are caused by α-particle irradiation after kimberlite injection and subsequent cooling. The natural diamonds with more or less homogeneous transparent green coats, studied in this work, appear to have received doses of at least 5 × 1013−1 × 1014 α.cm−2. For Pre-Cambrian kimberlites, such doses could occur if certain regions of the diatremes contained ⩾20 ppm by weight of equivalent uranium, after kimberlite injection and solidification.

Such considerations lead to the prediction that the radioelement concentrations in the Finsch kimberlite diatreme and the Bellsbank fissure kimberlite are considerably greater than those in the Premier mine, though radioelement segregation could produce the required local concentrations. Some exploratory autoradiographic measurements made on two kimberlite rock samples from Premier and De Beers Mines indicated that the radioelements were apparently distributed on a submicron scale, which would be a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for uniform α-irradiation of diamonds.

Diamonds from various alluvial sources showing green and brown spots arising from much heavier and more localized radiation damage are also discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 39 , Issue 303 , September 1973 , pp. 349 - 360
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1973

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

Present address: Department of Solid State Physics, Research School of Physical Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, A.C.T., Australia.

2

Present address: De Beers Industrial Diamond Division Ltd., P.O. Box 916, Johannesburg, South Africa.

References

Allsopp, (H. L.), Burger, (A. J.), and Van Zyl, (C.), 1967. Earth Planet Set. Letters, 3, 161–6.Google Scholar
Anderson, (B. W.), 1963. Jo urn. Gemmology, 11, 1–11.Google Scholar
Applin, (K. E. S.), 1972. Trans, lnstn. Min. Metall. (Sect. A), 81, 62–77.Google Scholar
[Bobrievich, (A. P.), Bondarenko, (M. N.), Gnevushev, (M. A.), Krasov, (A. M.), Smirnov, (G. I.), and Yurkevich, (R. K.)] 1959. The diamond deposits of Yakutia). Moscow: State Scientific and Technical Publishing House.Google Scholar
Bowie, (S. H. U.), 1970a. Uranium Exploration Geology International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, 23–33.Google Scholar
Bowie, (S. H. U.) 1970b. Ibid. 285-300.Google Scholar
Chadderton, (L. T.) and Torrens, (I. M.), 1968. Fission Damage in Crystals Methuen and Co. Ltd., London.Google Scholar
Collela, (R.) and Burgeat, (J.), 1969. Journ. Appl. Physics, 40, 3505–14.Google Scholar
Crookes (Sir William), 1904. Proc. Roy. Soc. ﹛London), Ser. A., 74, 37–49.Google Scholar
Davidson, (C. F.), 1957. Econ. Geol., 52, 668–93.Google Scholar
Dawson, (J. B.), 1960. A comparative study of the geology and petrography of the kimberlites of the Basutoland province. Ph.D. Thesis, Leeds University.Google Scholar
Dawson, (J. B.) 1970. In African Magmatism and Tectonics., 321-36. Ed. Clifford, (T. N.) and Gass, (I. G.), Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Dawson, (J. B.) 1971. The Genesis of Kimberlite. Diamond Research, 2-7.Google Scholar
Denny, (G. A.), 1896. Trans. Instn. Metall., 5, 315–22.Google Scholar
Denny, (G. A.) 1897. Klerksdorp Gold Fields. Macmillan and Co. Ltd., London.Google Scholar
Fairbairn, (W. C.), 1971. Diamonds in Venezuela. Mining Mag., 125, 349–53.Google Scholar
Fleischer, (R. L.) and Hart, (H. R.), 1970. Fission track dating: techniques and problems. General Electric Technical Information Series. No. 70-C-328.Google Scholar
Gittus, (J. H.), 1963. Metallurgy of the Rarer Metals- 8. Uranium. Butterworths, London.Google Scholar
Grantham, (D. R.) and Allen, (J. B.), 1960. Overseas Geology and Mineral Resources, 8, 5–25.Google Scholar
Harris, (J. W.) and Vance, (E. R.), 1972. Contr. Mineral. Pelr., 35, 227–34.Google Scholar
Harris, (P. G.) and Middlemost, (E. A. K.), 1969. Lithos., 3, 77–88.Google Scholar
Kennedy, (G. C.) and Nordlie, (B. E.), 1968. Econ. Geol., 63, 495–503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kleeman, (J. D.), Green, (D. H.), and Lovering, (J. F.), 1969. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 5, 449–58.Google Scholar
Larsen, (J. R.) and Phair, (G.), 1957. In Nuclear Geology, 75–88. Ed. Faul (H.).Google Scholar
Leite, (C. R.), 1969. Mineralogia e cristalografia do diamante do triângulio mineiro. (Portuguese.) Ph.D. Thesis São Paolo University, Brazil.Google Scholar
Liebenberg, (W. R.), 1957. The occurrence and origin of gold and radioactive minerals in the Wit- watersrand System, the Dominion Reef, Ventersdorp Contact Reef, and the Black Reef. Uranium in South Africa 1946-56 I, Hortors Ltd., Johannesburg, 20–142.Google Scholar
Lind, (S. C.) and Bardwell, (D. C.), 1923. Amer. Min., 8, 171–80.Google Scholar
Meyer, (H. O. A.), Milleix.e, (H. J.), and Nave, (E.), 1965. Nature, 206, 392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polinard, (E.), 1929. Les diamants translucides et opaques des gisements de la Bushimaie. Ann. Soc. Geol. Beige Special Pub.Google Scholar
Raal, (F. A.), 1969. Amer. Min., 54, 292–6.Google Scholar
Schiffmann, (C. A.), 1969. Journ. Gemmology, 11, 233–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharpe, (J. W. N.), 1949. Trans. Geol. Soc. S. Afr., 52, 265–88.Google Scholar
Stephens, (E. A.), Bateson, (J. H.), Javanaphlt, (J. C.), and Sanevong, (P.), 1966. Inst. Geol. Sci. Overseas Div. Rept. No., 6.Google Scholar
Vance, (E. R.) and Anderson, (B. W.), 1972. Min. Mag., 38, 721–4.Google Scholar
Vance, (E. R.) and Milledge, (H. J.), 1972. Ibid. 878-81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wagner, (P. A.), 1914 (reprinted 1971). The diamond fields of Southern Africa. Transvaal Leader, Johannesburg (1914); Struik (Pty) Ltd., Cape Town (1971).Google Scholar
Young, (R. B.), 1917. The banket of South Africa. Gurney and Jackson, London.Google Scholar