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B.C. Hearn

Publications and source records attributed to B.C. Hearn.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS1983

Lake Ellen kimberlite, Michigan, U.S.A.

The recently discovered Lake Ellen kimberlite, in northern Michigan, indicates that bedrock sources of diamonds found in glacial deposits in the Great Lakes area could lie within the northern U.S. Magnetic surveys show a main kimberlite 200 m in diameter and an adjacent body 25 x 90 m(?). The kimberlite cuts Proterozoic volcanic rocks that overlie Archean basement, but is post-Ordovician in age based on abundant Ordovician(?) dolomite inclusions. Xenocrysts and megacrysts are ilmenite (abundant, 12.5-19% MgO), pyropealmandine and Cr-pyrope (up to 9.3% Cr2O3), Cr-diopside (up to 4.5% Cr2O3), olivine (Fo 91), enstatite and phlogopite. The kimberlite contains fragments of crustal schist and granulite, as well as disaggregated crystals and rare xenoliths of eclogites, garnet pyroxenites and garnet peridotites from a heterogeneous upper mantle. Eclogites, up to 3 cm size, show granoblastic equant or tabular textures and consist of jadeitic cpx (up to 8.4% Na20, 15.3% Al2O3), pyrope-almandine, ? rutile ? kyanite ? sanidine ? sulfide. Garnet pyroxenite contains pyrope--(0.44% Cr2O3) + cpx (0.85% Na2O, 0.53% Cr2O3) + Mg-Al spinel. Mineral compositions of rare composite xenocrysts of garnet + cpx are distinctively peridotitic, pyroxenitic or eclogitic. Calculated temperatures of equilibration are 920-1060 ?C for the eclogites and 820-910?C for the garnet pyroxenite using the Ellis-Green method. Five peridotite garnet-clinopyroxene composite xenocrysts have calculated temperatures of 980-1120?C using the Lindsley-Dixon 20 kb solvus. Spinel pyroxenite and clinopyroxene-orthopyroxene composites have lower calculated temperatures of 735?C and 820-900?C, respectively. Kyanite-bearing eclogites must have formed at pressures greater than 18-20 kb. Using the present shield geotherm with a heat flow value of 44mW/m 2 for the time of kimberlite emplacement, the eclogite temperatures imply pressures of 35-48 kb (105-140 km) and the garnet pyroxenite temperatures indicate pressures of 24-29 kb (75-90 km). Temperatures of two peridotitic garnet-cpx composite xenocrysts if on a shield geotherm, imply pressures within the diamond stability field.

Open-File Report↗
USGS1983

Garnet peridotites from Williams kimberlites, north-central Montana, U.S.A

Two Williams kimberlites, 250x350m and 37x390m, in the eastern part of a swarm of 30 middle Eocene alnoitic diatremes in north-central Montana, USA, contain xenoliths of garnet-bearing lherzolites, harzburgites and dunites, in addition to spinel peridotites and upper and lower crustal amphibolites and granulites. Colluvial purple, red, and pink garnets are dominantly Mg- and Cr-rich, indicating their derivation From peridotites or megacrysts, and have CaO and Cr 2 O 3 contents that fall in the lherzolite trend. Temperatures were calculated by the Lindsley-Dixon 20 kb method for lherzolites and by the O'Neill-Wood method for harzburgites and dunites, and pressures were calculated by the MacGregor method, or were assumed to be 50 kb for dunites. Most peridotites equilibrated at 1220-1350°C and 50-60 kb, well above a 44mW/m 2 shield geotherm and on or at higher P than the graphite-diamond boundary. Four lherzolites are low T-P (830-990°C, 23-42 kb) and are close to the shield geotherm. All four low T-P lherzolites have coarse textures whereas the high T-P cluster has both coarse and porphyroclastic textures, indicating a range of conditions of deformation and recrystallization in a restricted high T-P range. The tiny size (0.01-0.2 mm) of granulated and euhedral olivines in several xenoliths shows that deformation was occurring just prior to incorporation in kimberlite and that ascent was rapid enough (40-70 km/hr) to retard Further coarsening of fine-grained olivine. For other high T-P peridotites, cessation of deformation and beginning of recrystallization before or during inclusion in kimberlite is suggested by larger (up to 3mm) euhedral olivines in a matrix of fine granulated olivine or by optical continuity of large and nearby small olivines. Two low T-P lherzolites contain distinctive, phlogopite-rimmed, 5-8mm clots of moderate-Cr garnet + Cr-spinel + Cr-diopside + enstatite that are inferred to have formed by reaction of an initial high-Cr garnet brought into the garnet + spinel stability Field. This suggests a reduction in pressure and temperature prior to inclusion in the kimberlite, followed by metasomatic introduction of phlogopite. These textural and compositional variations of peridotites seem most compatible with kimberlite generation and ascent during dynamic diapiric perturbation of the upper mantle.

Montana↗