Subcretion of altered oceanic crust beneath the SW São Francisco Craton, Brazil – A stable isotope study on diamonds and their inclusions

Carvalho, Luisa; Stachel, Thomas; Pearson, GD; Timmerman, Suzette; Stern, Richard; Jalowitzki, Tiago; Scholz, Ricardo; Fuck, Reinhardt (2023). Subcretion of altered oceanic crust beneath the SW São Francisco Craton, Brazil – A stable isotope study on diamonds and their inclusions. Lithos, 460-461, p. 107395. Elsevier 10.1016/j.lithos.2023.107395

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The presence of diamonds of lherzolitic, eclogitic and websteritic paragenesis in proximal alluvial deposits on the southwestern edge of the São Francisco Craton documents the incorporation of subducted oceanic crust and associated metasomatism through slab dehydration fluids affecting the local SCLM. To better constrain the subduction-association of diamond substrates and metasomatic events, we conducted a combined study of the δ13C-δ15N-[N] characteristics of 81 diamonds and the δ18O values of four of their eclogitic garnet inclusions. Diamond carbon isotope compositions range from −25.5 to +0.5‰, with 13C-depleted diamonds (≤ −7‰) being exclusively of eclogitic/websteritic paragenesis while the 13C-enriched (≥ −2‰) tail of the distribution is related to diamonds with lherzolitic inclusions. Nitrogen isotope values range from −14.2 to +25.5‰, with about half of the values being positive. A general absence of coherent trends in δ13C-δ15N-[N] across growth zones implies that diamond formation did not occur under fluid-limited conditions. Instead, the observed heterogeneity in carbon and nitrogen isotope compositions reflects contributions of distinct source reservoirs hosted in both altered oceanic crust and Earth's mantle. Nitrogen contents peak around a δ15N value of −3.5‰, indicating that more N-rich fluids, presumably representing a primitive endmember composition, have a mantle-like δ15N signature. While positive and negative δ15N values occur equally near the δ13C mantle value (−5 ± 2‰), 13C-depleted diamonds have nitrogen isotope compositions skewed towards positive values.

13C depletion and 15N enrichment is a signature of biogenic carbonates/organic matter and low-T clays in uppermost, basaltic sections of oceanic crust that experienced low-temperature seawater alteration prior to subduction. Correspondingly, the oxygen isotope compositions of eclogitic garnet inclusions fall in a restricted range between +5.5‰ to +7.0‰. For three of the four samples, the stable isotope signatures of inclusions and host diamonds display perfect agreement, with the intensity of seawater alteration signatures, in the form of garnet inclusion 18O enrichment and host diamond 13C depletion and 15N enrichment, increasing together. For the fourth sample, the δ18O signature of the garnet inclusion (+5.5‰) and δ13C-δ15N signatures of the diamond host (−25 and + 19‰, respectively) are decoupled. While the mantle-like δ18O signature indicates a diamond substrate derived from deeper levels in oceanic crust (e.g., deep sheeted dikes), the diamond-forming fluids must have originated from sources that originally resided near the sea water interface. A viable mode of mixing such disparate isotopic signatures is the interaction of diamond-forming fluids derived from shallow oceanic crust altered at low-temperatures with eclogitized substrates originally formed in deeper levels of oceanic crust. This process likely occurred during diamond formation in a tectonic subduction mélange, which juxtaposes deeper and shallower levels of oceanic crust. In the lithospheric mantle above the subcreted oceanic slab, the elevated carbon isotope and highly variable nitrogen isotope compositions of diamonds formed in lherzolitic substrates likely relate to devolatilization and/or melting of principally oceanic sediments containing marine carbonates and clays and subsequent mixing with mantle-derived volatile components. In combination, our diamond and inclusion stable isotope data provide insight into multiple processes that promote diamond formation both inside subducted slabs accreted to the São Francisco cratonic keel and in adjacent subcontinental lithospheric mantle.

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