Natural occurrence of silicon carbide in a diamondiferous kimberlite from Fuxian
Nature
By: I. Leung, W. Guo, I. Friedman, and J. Gleason
Links
- The Publications Warehouse does not have links to digital versions of this publication at this time
- Download citation as: RIS | Dublin Core
Abstract
Considerable debate surrounds the existence of silicon carbide in nature, mostly owing to the problem of possible contamination by man-made SiC. Recently, Gurney1 reviewed reports of rare SiC inclusions in diamonds, and noted that SiC can only be regarded as a probable rather than proven cogenetic mineral. Here we report our observation of clusters of SiC coexisting with diamond in a kimberlite from Fuxian, China. Macrocrysts of ??-SiC are overgrown epitaxially by ??-SiC, and both polymorphs are structurally well ordered. We have also measured the carbon isotope compositions of SiC and diamonds from Fuxian. We find that SiC is more enriched in 12C than diamond by 20% relative to the PDB standard. Isotope fractionation might have occurred through an isotope exchange reaction in a common carbon reservoir. Silicon carbide may thus ultimately provide information on carbon cycling in the Earth's mantle.
| Publication type | Article |
|---|---|
| Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
| Title | Natural occurrence of silicon carbide in a diamondiferous kimberlite from Fuxian |
| Series title | Nature |
| Volume | 346 |
| Issue | 6282 |
| Year Published | 1990 |
| Language | English |
| Larger Work Type | Article |
| Larger Work Subtype | Journal Article |
| Larger Work Title | Nature |
| First page | 352 |
| Last page | 354 |
| Google Analytic Metrics | Metrics page |