Mineral Inclusions in Lithospheric Diamonds

Abstract

Initially, it may seem extremely daunting to be sitting in front of several thousand carats of small diamonds, knowing that the likelihood of finding a diamond with a meaningful inclusion is about 1% of that parcel. Like other events in life, however, the joy of finding such material soon outweighs the perceived hardship. Mineral inclusions in diamond provide unique and pristine information about inner Earth, from depths of about 120 to just over 800 km and over 3.5 to 0.1 billion years of Earth history. Such is the scope and importance of inclusion research.