Specific features of basic kimberlite mass composition

DOI:10.47765/0869-7175-2025-10005

Abstract

The conducted studies have shown that kimberlite diatremes are characterized by individual mineral features of the rocks that compose them. Sometimes these differences are inherent not only to specific pipes, but also to individual bodies and blocks. The processes of serpentinization, carbonatization, chloritization and brucitization also have their own specific features in each diatreme. Individual properties are also characteristic of the main mass of kimberlites of secondary formations, consisting of two or more minerals. The appearance of kimberlite rocks in diatremes is largely determined by the development of a complex of secondary minerals that arose after the consolidation of rocks as a result of their endo- and exogenous transformations. Analysis of the distribution of serpentine, phlogopite, chlorite, talc, calcite, dolomite, pyroaurite, brucite and their associations in kimberlites of the Siberian platform made it possible to consider the conditions of formation of individual new mineral associations and to assess their role in the formation of the individual appearance of these diamond-bearing rocks. The differences of the latter are due to the intensity of development and uneven distribution of the main secondary minerals and their varieties: calcite, dolomite, pyroaurite, phlogopite, chlorite, lizardite, chrysotile and Al-serpentine with varying degrees of development of structural defects. It has been established that kimberlites have undergone repeated changes during their formation, the intensity of which at different stages of diatreme formation has an individual character and depends on the specific conditions of minerogenesis. Various options for using secondary minerals of kimberlites to solve scientific and applied problems are proposed.