The Discovery of Diamond from the Zhimafang Pyrope Peridotite of the Sulu UHP Metamorphic Zone, East China, and Its Geological Implications

Abstract  From Donghai County of Jiangsu Province to Rongcheng County of Shandong Province on the southern border of the Sulu orogen, there exposes an ultramafic belt, accompanied with an ultrahigh‐pressure metamorphic zone. It can be further divided into the Xugou belt (the northern belt), and the Maobei‐Gangshang belt (the southern belt). One grain of diamond has been discovered from the Zhimafang pyrope peridotite in the southern belt using the heavy mineral method. The diamond grain is 2.13 mm × 1.42 mm × 0.83 mm in size and weighs 9.4 mg. The occurrence of the diamond suggests that the Zhimafang pyrope peridotite xenolith is derived from the lithospheric upper mantle. The tectonic emplacement mechanism of the pyrope peridotite xenoliths in granite‐gneisses is obviously different from those in kimberlite. The Sulu orogen was located on the active continental margin of the Sino‐Korean craton in the Neoproterozoic. The relatively cold and water‐bearing oceanic crustal tholeiite slab subducted beneath the lithospheric mantle of the Sino‐Korean craton, and partly melted to produce granitic magma and water‐bearing fluids. The magma and fluids pierced through and fractured the overlying lithospheric mantle, and ascended to the crustal level together with the ultramafic mantle fragments as xenoliths.