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  • Review Article
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Genesis and evolution of kimberlites

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume 4, pages 738–753 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Kimberlites are volcanic rocks enriched in CO2 and H2O and derive from the deepest-sourced melts (up to 300 km) that reach Earth’s surface. The mantle processes that generate such deep melts and allow them to traverse through thick (≥150 km), cold lithosphere carrying dense mantle fragments, such as xenoliths and diamonds, are debated. In this Review, we explore the composition, formation and evolution of kimberlite melts and the mechanisms of their ascent. Both deep-mantle plumes and shallower convective motions linked to lithospheric extension could trigger kimberlite melting by bringing upwelling mantle rocks to depths above Fe-metal stability (~160–250 km depth). Despite the CO2 enrichment in kimberlite melts, their sources are peridotites not necessarily enriched in carbon. Kimberlite primary melts are transitional between silicate and carbonate compositions and evolve towards increasing silica and lower CO2 concentrations during ascent, while concurrently interacting with the lithospheric mantle. These ascent processes promote the exsolution of CO2–H2O fluids during decompression, a prerequisite for the fast ascent (up to tens of metres per second) of kimberlite magmas. Key unresolved questions include the volatile and alkali budget of kimberlites and their mantle sources; their relationship with ‘superdeep’ diamonds; and their potential link to plumes from the core–mantle boundary.

Key points

  • Kimberlite rocks are unlike kimberlite melts, owing to entrainment and assimilation of mantle and crustal fragments, fluid loss during ascent and emplacement, and post-emplacement alteration including ubiquitous serpentinization.

  • Reconstructed kimberlite melts have silicate–carbonate compositions enriched in Mg and Ca and poor in Al, but the exact concentrations of volatile (CO2, H2O) and alkali elements are poorly constrained.

  • The sources of kimberlites are unlikely to be located in the lithospheric mantle. Petrological and geochemical constraints support partial melting in the upper convecting mantle (<250–300 km).

  • Melting is probably triggered by oxidation of reduced carbon during upwelling of mantle peridotites above the metal saturation depth. Geodynamic processes driving upwelling include deep-mantle plumes, lithospheric extension and small-scale convection in the upper mantle.

  • Kimberlite ascent to the surface is a complex process that involves locally extensive priming of magmatic conduits by previously failed pulses of kimberlite melt. Very fast ascent is probably triggered by exsolution of CO2-rich fluids following melt decompression and interaction with wall rocks in the lithospheric mantle.

  • Major unknowns include the origin of serpentine and the melt H2O budget; conditions of crystallization including pressure, temperature and oxygen fugacity; and the composition and depths of fluid exsolution from kimberlite melts.

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Fig. 1: Spatial and temporal distribution of kimberlites.
Fig. 2: Typical kimberlite features and evolution during ascent and emplacement.
Fig. 3: Comparison of proposed primary kimberlite melt compositions and experimental melts of carbonate-bearing peridotites.
Fig. 4: Pressure and temperature conditions of kimberlite melt generation.
Fig. 5: Possible geodynamic scenarios to generate kimberlites.
Fig. 6: Kimberlites and large low-shearwave-velocity provinces (LLSVPs).
Fig. 7: Interaction between kimberlite melts and lithospheric-mantle wall rocks.

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Data availability

Data for Figs. 3 and 4 can be found in the Supplementary Data file.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank H. Grutter, P. Janney and Y. Weiss for providing data and/or images used in some of the figures. A.G. is funded by the Swiss National Foundation (Ambizione fellowship no. PZ00P2_180126/1). T.H.T. acknowledges financial support from the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence scheme, project number 332523 (PHAB).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geochemistry and Petrology, Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Andrea Giuliani & Max W. Schmidt

  2. Centre for Planetary Habitability (PHAB), University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Trond H. Torsvik

  3. School of Geosciences, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Trond H. Torsvik

  4. Department of Earth Sciences, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

    Yana Fedortchouk

Authors
  1. Andrea Giuliani
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  2. Max W. Schmidt
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  3. Trond H. Torsvik
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  4. Yana Fedortchouk
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Contributions

A.G. and T.H.T. researched data. A.G. wrote the article. M.W.S. contributed substantially to discussion of the contents. M.W.S., T.H.T. and Y.F. reviewed and edited the manuscript before submission.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrea Giuliani.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Reviews Earth and Environment thanks V. Stagno, L. Porritt and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Glossary

Adiabatic

In this context, it indicates the depth-dependent temperature variability of the mantle in the absence of thermal perturbations.

Buffer

A redox buffer such as the one based on equilibrium between quartz, fayalite and magnetite (QFM), or on metallic iron and iron oxide (or wüstite), is an assemblage of compounds that define oxygen fugacity as a function of temperature and pressure.

Deuteric

This term refers to the magmatic origin of a fluid. Deuteric fluids can be released during crystallization of a magma at shallow crustal conditions or during magma ascent. As fluids principally migrate upwards, these can affect the composition of previously crystallized overlying magmatic rocks.

Hypabyssal

Subvolcanic rock crystallized at shallow depth (less than a few kilometres) from a magma that did not reach the surface.

Incompatible trace elements

Elements occurring in very low amounts (parts per million or μg g−1 level) in the mantle, which become concentrated in the melt phase on partial melting.

Lamproites

Mantle-derived magmatic rocks highly enriched in mica and therefore K2O. The cratonic variety commonly hosts abundant olivine (hence called olivine lamproite) and is therefore rich in MgO and poor in SiO2 compared with lamproites associated with subduction zones.

Metasomatism

Process of enrichment mediated by melts or fluids.

Phenocrysts

Magmatic crystals with idiomorphic to subidiomorphic shape.

Plume

Solid-state upwelling commonly but not necessarily rooted at the core–mantle boundary.

Primary melts

Melts in equilibrium with their mantle source.

Redox freezing

Crystallization of a solid phase from a fluid or melt in response to changes in oxygen fugacity conditions.

Redox melting

Partial melting triggered by a change in oxidation fugacity conditions and, therefore, element speciation (for example, oxidation of carbon).

Solidus

Temperature at which melting begins for a given pressure and volatile content.

Ultramafic

Rock composition highly enriched in MgO (>20 wt%) and depleted in SiO2 (<40–45 wt%).

Xenocrysts

Nominally ‘foreign crystals’, that is, grains entrained from the wall rocks by an ascending magma.

Xenoliths

Nominally ‘foreign rocks’, that is, rock fragments entrained from the wall rocks by an ascending magma.

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Giuliani, A., Schmidt, M.W., Torsvik, T.H. et al. Genesis and evolution of kimberlites. Nat Rev Earth Environ 4, 738–753 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-023-00481-2

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