Mineralogy and petrology of kimberlites and alkaline rocks

碱性岩石的矿物学和岩石学研究是我们理解地球上地幔演化和战略矿产资源起源的基础。后者包括金刚石、铌、钽、稀土元素、锆和磷。在碱性岩石中发现的许多矿物质是目前用于各种电子设备和隔离放射性废物的化合物的对应物。对这些矿物质的结构和组成的了解在设计用于上述目的的无机材料方面证明是有价值的。本研究所研究的碱性岩是由金伯利岩、碳酸岩和钠长石正长岩岩浆形成的。这组明显不同的岩浆是相互联系的，上地幔交代过程在其成因中发挥了作用。这项工作的长期目标是确定这些过程的性质以及各种岩浆类型之间的关系。通过对这些岩石类型中存在的矿物的组成和共生的详细研究以及在低压和高压下对其合成类似物的实验研究，解决了这个问题。实验研究包括近固相线到超液相线结晶研究和合成类似物中金属溶解度的调查。这项工作的新奇之处在于，将不同的矿物学、岩石学、实验和晶体学研究结合起来，为这些岩浆和相关矿床的成因提供了见解。

Research on the mineralogy and petrology of alkaline rocks is fundamental to our understanding of the evolution of the Earth's upper mantle and the origins of strategic mineral resources. The latter include diamond, niobium, tantalum, rare earth elements, zirconium and phosphorous. Many of the minerals found in alkaline rocks are the counterparts of compounds currently used in diverse electronic devices and for sequestering radioactive waste.Insights into the structure and composition of these minerals has proved valuable in the design of inorganic materials used for the above purposes. Alkaline rocks studied in this research are derived from kimberlite, carbonatite and agpaitic syenite magmas. This group of apparently diverse magmas are linked in that upper mantle metasomatic processes play a role in their genesis. The long term objective of the work is to determine the nature of these processes and relationships, or lack of, between the various magma types. This problem is addressed by detailed studies of the composition and paragenesis of the minerals present in these rock types together with experimental studies at low and high pressures of their synthetic analogs. Experimental studies include near-solidus to supra-liquidus crystallization studies and investigation of the solubility of metals in the synthetic analogs. The novelty of the work as a whole is that diverse mineralogical, petrological, experimental and crystaallographics studies are combined to provide insights into the genesis of these magmas and associated mineral deposits.