The Torrie, Sputnik, and Eddie kimberlite rocks, located near Yamba Lake, central Slave province, N.W.T., are volcaniclastic, macrocrystic, heterolithic, olivine-rich tuff, and olivine-rich tuff breccia. Torrie and Sputnik kimberlite rocks contain pyroxene and garnet xenocrysts and megacrysts with major-element compositions consistent with derivation mostly from disaggregated garnet lherzolite, with subordinate contributions from eclogite, spinel lherzolite, garnet harzburgite, and websterite. The presence of primary groundmass phlogopite and compositionally evolved spinel, and the absence of mantle xenocrysts, xenoliths, and megacrystic ilmenite distinguish the Eddie kimberlite pipe from the other two kimberlite pipes. Large variations in δ18O of garnet and clinopyroxene in xenocrysts and xenoliths (+3.98 to +6.36), nonequilibrium intermineral isotopic fractionation, and major-element heterogeneity are interpreted as resulting from infiltration of fluids or melts produced by dehydration or melting of subducted oceanic crust into overlying peridotite. Although the timing is unconstrained for the xenocysts, the xenolith must have experienced this metasomatic interaction shortly before entrainment in the kimberlite. Variable δ18O values for magnesian ilmenite are also interpreted to result indirectly from such metasomatic activity in the mantle as well. The Torrie and Sputnik kimberlite rocks have low concentrations of diamond indicator minerals consistent with their low-diamond grades. These kimberlite rocks did not sample a significant amount of garnet harzburgite, the rock type commonly associated with high-diamond grades in other kimberlite rocks. Furthermore, metasomatism just prior to kimberlite eruption may have caused the resorption of any diamond present.
Zircons from eclogite in the Jericho kimberlite pipe, northern Canada: evidence for Proterozoic high pressure metamorphism beneath the Slave Province
