Where should you look for diamonds?
As
a geologist or engineer, you will use your knowledge to help your
employer evaluate potential projects. Suppose your company wants to
get into diamonds. Where should you look?
You know enough
to begin prospecting for diamonds using the web with, say, Google
Earth. Search for places where plumes have cut across old subduction
zones. The subduction zones pull carbon in sediments to the depths
needed to form diamonds. A rising plume that hits a subduction zone
captures inclusions as it ascends, returning the diamonds to the
surface.
Since plumes make straight lines of volcanoes on
the ocean floor as plates move over them, it is easy to track them
back onto the continents, to regions where pieces of continents
where sutured together. For example, you studied the Precambrian
assembly of North America in your Introduction to Geology course.
An
easy place to get initial background on diamonds is
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond
and
follow in no particular order
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberlite
Notice
that indicator minerals in streams lead you to Kimberlites. Work your
way upstream, deciding which tributary to follow based on which has
the better indicator minerals. The closer you are to the source, the
more diverse, bigger, and less rounded and sorted they
are.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_pipe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maar
Note the appearance from
space
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatreme
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_ground
and other interesting links from these pages.
Notice
that indicator minerals in stream lead you to Kimberlites. The closer
you are, the more diverse, bigger, and less rounded they
are.
Unexplored areas without surface Maars still
have indicator minerals in streams eroding the deposits. These are
named and discussed in the various links from the pages listed above
and below.
That is where your new skills come in in the
field; you follow the indicator minerals upstream to the hidden pipes
now covered by vegetation, soils and younger rock. Canada is good
ground because the recent glaciers scraped off most of that
"overburden".
To get you started, here is
some work on well known prospects formed when Canada assembled in the
Precambrian:
http://www.eos.ubc.ca/research/diamonds/kopylova/intro/emplacement.html
and
see the figure from Field and Scott Smith 1998
A company
with holdings near a big
field.
http://www.wasecoresources.com/projects/jamesbay.html
After
development, they decided to stand pat with their current
investment.
Here
is the American Museum's display on a Russian success
story:
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/diamonds/russia.html
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/diamonds/carbon.html
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/diamonds/formation.html
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/diamonds/how.html
and
some Russian
mines
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir_diamond_pipe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udachnaya_pipe
complete
with Google satellite
photo
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=66.435421,112.314606&spn=.127002,.449444&t=k&hl=en
For
me, winter break starts Thursday after finals. Hours later, I'll be
many hundreds of miles from here, headed for the field. The world is
waiting for you, and most of it has never been looked at by people
who find resources. Where will you go?
Prof. Smart
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