Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 8 February 1991:
Vol. 251. no. 4994, pp. 652 - 655
DOI: 10.1126/science.251.4994.652
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Potassium in Clinopyroxene Inclusions from Diamonds

GEORGE E. HARLOW 1 and DAVID R. VEBLEN 2

1 Department of Mineral Sciences, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024
2 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218

Analytical transmission electron microscopy, electron microprobe analyses, and singlecrystal x-ray diffraction data support the conclusion that high potassium contents, up to 1.5 weight percent K2O, of some diopside and omphacite inclusions from diamonds represent valid clinopyroxene compositions with K in solid solution. This conclusion contradicts the traditional view of pyroxene crystal chemistry, which holds that K is too large to be incorporated in the pyroxene structure. These diopside and omphacite inclusions have a high degree of crystal perfection and anomalously large unit-cell volumes, and a defect-free structure is observed in K-bearing regions when imaged by transmission electron microscopy. These observations imply that clinopyroxene can be a significant host for K in the mantle and that some clinopyroxene inclusions and their diamond hosts may have grown in a highly K-enriched environment.

Submitted on September 14, 1990
Accepted on December 11, 1990


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Solid solution between potassic-obertiite and potassic-fluoro-magnesio-arfvedsonite in a silica-rich lamproite from northeastern Mozambique.
P. Robinson, A. Solli, A. Engvik, M. Erambert, B. Bingen, H. Schiellerup, and F. Njange (2008)
European Journal of Mineralogy 20, 1011-1018
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
La, Ce, Nd, and Sr behavior in minette magmas during crystallization of apatite-clinopyroxene-mica paragenesis at upper-mantle conditions.
J. P. Cid, L. V. S. Nardi, C. S. Campos, P. E. Gisbert, C. Merlet, H. Conceicao, and B. Boyer (2007)
European Journal of Mineralogy 19, 39-50
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Compressibility of synthetic potassium-rich clinopyroxene: In-situ high-pressure single-crystal X-ray study.
L. Bindi, R. T. Downs, G. E. Harlow, O. G. Safonov, Y. A. Litvin, L. L. Perchuk, H. Uchida, and S. Menchetti (2006)
American Mineralogist 91, 802-808
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Low-pressure and low-temperature K-bearing kosmochloric diopside from the Osayama serpentinite melange, SW Japan.
T. Tsujimori and J. G. Liou (2005)
American Mineralogist 90, 1629-1635
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Experimental evidence on phlogopitic mantle metasomatism induced by phengite dehydration.
B. WUNDER and S. MELZER (2003)
European Journal of Mineralogy 15, 641-647
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
High P-T phase relations and stability of a (21)-hydrous clinopyribole in the system K2O-Na2O-CaO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2-H2O: An experimental study to 18 GPa.
J. Konzett and S. L. Japel (2003)
American Mineralogist 88, 1073-1083
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Ultrapotassic clinopyroxene from the Kumdy-Kol microdiamond mine, Kokchetav Complex, Kazakhstan: Occurrence, composition and crystal-chemical characterization.
L. Bindi, L. Bindi, O. G. Safonov, V. O. Yapaskurt, L. L. Perchuk, and S. Menchetti (2003)
American Mineralogist 88, 464-468
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Ultrahigh potassium content in the clinopyroxene structure: an X-ray single-crystal study.
L. BINDI, O. G. SAFONOV, Y. A. LITVIN, L. L. PERCHUK, and S. MENCHETTI (2002)
European Journal of Mineralogy 14, 929-934
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Crystal structure of phase X, a high pressure alkali-rich hydrous silicate and its anhydrous equivalent.
H. Yang, J. Konzett, and C. T. Prewitt (2001)
American Mineralogist 86, 1483-1488
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Geochemistry of pyroxene inclusions from the Warrumbungle Volcano, New South Wales, Australia.
M. R. Ghorbani and E. A.K. Middlemost (2000)
American Mineralogist 85, 1349-1367
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Transport and Storage of Potassium in the Earth’s Upper Mantle and Transition Zone: an Experimental Study to 23 GPa in Simplified and Natural Bulk Compositions.
J. KONZETT and Y. FEI (2000)
J. Petrology 41, 583-603
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Reply to a Comment by D. Jacob et al. on 'The Origins of Yakutian Eclogite Xenoliths'.
G. A. Snyder, L. A. Taylor, B. L. Beard, G. Crozaz, A. N. Halliday, V. N. Sobolev, and N. V. Sobolev (1998)
J. Petrology 39, 1535-1543
   Full Text »    PDF »
Potassium Amphibole Stability in the Upper Mantle: an Experimental Study in a Peralkaline KNCMASH System to 8.5 GPa.
J. Konzett, R.J. Sweeney, A.B. Thompson, and P. Ulmer (1997)
J. Petrology 38, 537-568
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
High-Resolution and Analytical Transmission Electron Microscopy of Mineral Disorder and Reactions.
D. R. Veblen, J. F. Banfield, G. D. Guthrie Jr., P. J. Heaney, E. S. Ilton, K. J. T. Livi, and E. A. Smelik (1993)
Science 260, 1465-1472
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)