Welcome to the Vancouver Kimberlite Cluster!
The Cluster is a UBC-SRK seminar series, to share ideas and stories from diamond exploration, kimberlite geology, and related topics. We meet downtown every one-to-two months for a talk, and a trip to the nearest pub. We aim to gather the many people working on kimberlites and diamonds in Vancouver, as well as professionals passing through. Everyone is welcome.
The talk schedule for this and past seasons are below.
2023/2024 Season:
| Date | Speaker | Title | Abstract |
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November 29, 2023 12 pm (Pacific Time) |
Dr. T. Gernon, PhD, University of Southampton (UK) |
Rift-induced disruption of cratonic keels drives kimberlite magmatism
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Kimberlites are volatile-rich, occasionally diamond-bearing magmas that have erupted explosively at Earth’s surface in the geologic past. These enigmatic magmas, originating from depths exceeding 150 kilometres in Earth’s mantle, occur in stable cratons and in pulses broadly synchronous with supercontinent cyclicity. Whether their mobilization is driven by mantle plumes or by mechanical weakening of cratonic lithosphere remains unclear. Here I will show that most kimberlites spanning the past billion years erupted about 30 million years after continental breakup, suggesting an association with rifting processes. Our dynamical and analytical models show that physically steep lithosphere-asthenosphere boundaries formed during rifting generate convective instabilities in the asthenosphere that slowly migrate many hundreds to thousands of kilometres inboard of rift zones. These instabilities endure many tens of millions of years after continental breakup and destabilize the basal tens of kilometres of the cratonic lithosphere, or keel. Displaced keel is replaced by a hot, upwelling mixture of asthenosphere and recycled volatile-rich keel in the return flow, causing decompressional partial melting. Our calculations show that this process can generate small-volume, low-degree, volatile-rich melts, closely matching the characteristics expected of kimberlites. Together, these results provide a quantitative and mechanistic link between kimberlite episodicity and supercontinent cycles via progressive disruption of cratonic keels. |
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February 13, 2024 6 pm (Pacific Time) |
K. Ross, MA Criminal Intelligence, Consultant to Jewellers Vigilance Canada |
Industry expertise at the service of police: How diamond experts and gemologists can help solve crimes |
Crimes involving diamonds and precious metals are often among the most elusive for police with industry knowledge often not overtly available, nor the basic understanding of the market or criminal practices in the utilization of these commodities. The acknowledgement that police cannot investigate and solve these types (and other types) of crime alone has opened the door for the partnerships that are turning the tables on criminals and pushing the traditional police-jewellery industry interactions into new collaborative territories. The intersection between police practice and non-police expertise has changed how evidence is gathered and what has even been considered as evidence in the past. This presentation will examine some criminal events involving the use of diamonds, gems, or precious metals, where industry practice can assist law enforcement like never before and some of the pioneering work and efforts that are being undertaken to further bridge the gap between criminal use of these commodities and criminal prosecution. |
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Past meetings 2022/2023 Season
Past meetings 2021/2022 Season
Past meetings 2020/2021 Season
Past meetings 2019/2020 Season
Past meetings 2018/2019 Season
Past meetings 2017/2018 Season
Past meetings 2016/2017 Season