RUSSIAN JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES VOL. 10, ES6002, doi:10.2205/2007ES000285, 2008
[2] To date development of scientific information resources and information-communication technologies becomes exceptionally important for solving fundamental and application tasks facing geoscience. A prominent place is occupied by the database "Carbonatite and Kimberlite Diamondiferous Massifs of the World'', elaborated in the framework of the project "Electronic Earth''. This database contains extensive geological information, accumulated by the present time, related to the peculiarities of tectonic position, structure, composition and ore-bearing parameters of the main part of carbonatite and kimberlitic massifs of various regions of the world. Carbonatites and kimberlites are derivatives of the earth mantle magmas. They attract the interest of scientists dealing with problems of mantle research, and also according to their considerable practical value due to their tremendous industrial mineral potential. Kimberlites are associated with the main industrial deposits of diamonds, and their genetic relatives - carbonatites - with large deposits of niobium, tantalum, rare-metals, titanium, phosphates, phlogopite and other minerals.
[3] Several attempts were made to generalize data in the form of monographs or database directories. Among those worth to be mentioned are the works by A. Yanse [Janse and Sheahan, 1995] A. D. Kharkiv, N. N. Zinchuk, A. I. Kruchkov [Kharkiv et al., 1998]; V. A. Milashev [Milashev, 1974; Milashev and Tretyakova, 2003], B. V. Vasilenko and others [Vsilenko et al., 1997]; I. P. Ilupin with co-authors [Ilupin et al, 1978, 1990]; A. R. Vuli [Wooley, 1989, 2001]; L. N. Kogarko [Kogarko et al., 2000]; J. Armstrong [Armstrong, 1998], E. Heinrich [Heinrich, 1966], A. A. Frolov, A. V. Tolstov, S. V. Belov [Frolov et al., 2003]. However, all of them described only separate characteristics either of carbonatites or kimberlites. Hence there is a need of a unified global database, comprising a wide range of geographical parameters, organized according to the general rules of providing quantitative or semi-quantitative information. This is not a simple task, given the limited access to initial data, absence of some data due to insufficient knowledge, difficulty in preparing their generalized description essential for their statistical processing. However, it's a necessary condition for comparing carbonatite and kimberlitic massifs and revealing new massifs or confirming the known ore-bearing factors and the criteria of their evaluation. Exactly this data on carbonatites and kimberlites was accumulated and presented by A. A. Burmistrov and co-authors [Frolov et al., 2005]. It was used as a basis for the distributed network system on carbonatites and kimberlites of the world developed by the Geophysical Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (GC RAS) in the framework of the project "Electronic Earth''. This database is available on the GC RAS portal "Geophysics''. The portal's brief description is given in the Appendix.
[4] It has to be emphasized that the correct target setting of a geological task is an essential requirement of the use of information resources and potentialities, provided by modern geoinformation technologies. On the basis of this task the correct target setting is formulated for its subsequent realization using information systems. Hence the role of a high-qualified geologist, possessing profound knowledge of a problem, becomes vitally important. Without his participation (speaking about solution of minerogenic tasks) it would be difficult to come to principally new prognostic conclusions, for the purpose of detecting new ore-bearing objects. The aforementioned relates in the full to diamond deposits, deposits of rare-metals and other minerals, connected to carbonatite and kimberlitic magmatic complexes. The joint system analysis of such complexes is the main objective of the present work.
Citation: 2008), Analysis of evolution and ore-bearing factors of rare-metal carbonatites and diamondiferous kimberlites, Russ. J. Earth Sci., 10, ES6002, doi:10.2205/2007ES000285.
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