Advancing diamond exploration - novel techniques for the interpretation of indicator minerals

This project will develop new tools for diamond exploration, applicable to the search for diamonds in Australia and overseas. Techniques of high-pressure experimental petrology will be used to develop mineral thermometers based on partitioning of Zn and Mn between upper mantle minerals. A new synchrotron-based technique for determining the redox state of the upper mantle will also be developed. These tools will then be applied to fragments of garnet peridotite transported from the deep lithosphere to the surface by deeply-derived, occasionally diamondiferous kimberlite magmas. The resulting temperature and redox information will provide fundamental constraints on lithospheric diamond stability.