V. A. Dushin (URSMU)

ON THE ISSUE OF POTENTIAL PRIMARY SOURCES OF DIAMONDS IN THE URALS

The article provides a brief description of the newly identified Akhtyl basanite-analcimite complex, as well as the Sertynya lamproite and Sylva fluidolite diamond-containing complexes, which are confined to the submeridional rift structures of the western and eastern borders of the Uralian orogeny.

The author conducted a mineralogical and petrographic study of diamond-bearing alkali-basite rocks identified as lamproites, kersantites, analcimites, basanites, and fluidolites. He demonstrates their probable fluid-magmatic genesis, as indicated by both structural, textural and mineralogical features, including accessory minerals that indicate diamond potential, as well as the presence of drop-shaped elliptical segregations of volcanic glass, the pulp-like finely dispersed nature of the groundmass, and unsorted weakly rounded to sharply angular fragments of igneous and sedimentary rocks. The data obtained indicate the probable manifestation of alkali-basite and phreatic volcanism, which led to the transportation of diamonds and their satellites by fluidolites and lamproites to a weakened rift zone in the post-collisional subcontinental environment of the Early Mesozoic.

Keywords: diamond, analcime, fluidolites, lamproites, basanites, analcimites, Yuryuzano-Sylva depression, Main West Ural thrust, Sylva, Akhtyl, Sertynya complexes