Petrogenesis and Evolution of Kimberlite Magma

Abstract

Hypotheses regarding the petrogenesis of kimberlite and its relationships with other magmas have ranged from the commonplace, e.g., fractional crystallization of incompatible element-poor magma (O’Hara and Yoder 1967), to the bizarre, e.g., Mikheyenko’s (1977) proposal that kimberlites am sedimentary rocks formed in Archean river deltas which have been subsequently mobilized as sedimentary tectonic breccias. Most petrogenetic schemes bear the imprint of the philosophy prevailing at the time of their introduction. This characteristic is no less true of current ideas than those of the 1930s; thus modern hypotheses, which hinge upon the fashionable concept of a metasomatized mantle as a panacea for all petrological problems, have heralded a resurgence of “Maxwell’s Demons” and the eclipse (temporarily?) of fractional crystallization models.

The fashion in which we think changes like the fashion of our clothes and it is difficult if not impossible for most people to think otherwise than in the fashion of their own period.

George Bernard Shaw