The Majuagaa kimberlite dike, Maniitsoq region, West Greenland: Constraints on an Mg-rich silicocarbonatitic melt composition from groundmass mineralogy and bulk compositions

The Majuagaa kimberlite dike in the Maniitsoq region, southern West Greenland, is 564 Ma old, 2.5 km long, and up to 2 m wide. It is well exposed and very fresh, allowing detailed petrographic and chemical investigations. Little or no serpentinization is observed, and primary petrographic characteristics and grain morphologies are preserved. The dike is diamondiferous and carries xenoliths (up to 30 cm), megacrysts and macrocrysts characteristic of kimberlite. On the bases of the paragenesis and compositions of groundmass phlogopite, geikielite and Mg-Ti-enriched spinel, the dike is classified as kimberlite, despite being carbonate-rich and the apparent absence of monticellite characteristic of many occurrences of bonafide hypabyssal kimberlite. Olivine megacrysts, macrocrysts and microcrysts are all xenocrystic, whereas microphenocrysts are xenocrystic microcrysts overgrown by equilibrium olivine. Most olivine (max. 37 wt.%) is found to be xenocrystic on the basis of Ni mass balance. The average bulk composition of the melt involved in the dike compares well with Group-1 kimberlite. Corrected for xenocrystic olivine and ilmenite, the melt has the composition of a silicocarbonatite and compares with experimental melts formed at very low degrees of partial melting of CO ₂-bearing lherzolite.