Journal article
Mantle oddities: A sulphate fluid preserved in a MARID xenolith from the Bultfontein kimberlite (Kimberley, South Africa)
A Giuliani, D Phillips, ML Fiorentini, MA Kendrick, R Maas, BA Wing, JD Woodhead, TH Bui, VS Kamenetsky
Earth and Planetary Science Letters | ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV | Published : 2013
Abstract
Sulphur in the lithospheric mantle is concentrated in sulphide minerals, with limited evidence for the occurrence of sulphate phases. Here we describe an unusual assemblage of celestine (SrSO4), clinopyroxene and minor phlogopite, pectolite, sphene, apatite, barite (BaSO4) and Ca-Sr carbonates in a MARID mantle xenolith sampled by the Bultfontein kimberlite (Kimberley, South Africa). This assemblage occurs in veins that pervasively traverse the xenolith, indicating that celestine and the other vein minerals crystallised from a fluid. In the MARID host rock, K-richterite is resorbed where in contact with celestine and is overgrown by clinopyroxene. Celestine hosts the other metasomatic vein p..
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Funding Acknowledgements
We thank Alan Greig for assistance with the LA-ICP-MS analyses, Bence Paul for explaining the intricacies of the IOLITE software, and Graham Hutchinson for support with the SEM imaging and EMP analyses at the University of Melbourne. We are also grateful to Karsten Goemann for assistance with FE-SEM work at the Central Science Laboratory, University of Tasmania. This manuscript has benefitted from discussions with a number of colleagues including Roberta Rudnick, Andrew Tomkins and Roger Mitchell. Insightful reviews of Sonja Aulbach and an anonymous reviewer, and editorial handling of Bernard Marty have greatly improved the manuscript. A.G.'s PhD research is supported by an International Australian Postgraduate Award. This is contribution 333 from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Core to Crust Fluid Systems (http://www.ccfs.mq.edu.au).