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Moissanite in Rocks of the Bobruisk Basement Inlier, Belarusian Crystalline Massif, East European Craton

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Abstract

A large range of minerals, native, intermetallic, and amorphous compounds containing K, Na, Fe, Mn, Ca, Ba, Sr, Cu, Pb, Co, Ni, Sn, Zn, Al, Ce, Nd, La, Pr, Sm, Y, Yb, Nb, Hf, W, Mo, Zr, Cr, V, Ag, Ti, Si, As, P, Bi, O, H, F, Cl, S, Se, C, B, N, and F has been identified in rocks from the Bobruisk basement inlier of the Belarusian crystalline massif in the western part of the East European craton. One of the identified phases was moissanite, which occurs as anhedral and subhedral grains up to 1.5 mm and is the 6H hexagonal polytype. One of the moissanite grains contained mineral inclusions inherent in meteorites: sinoite (Si2N2O), xifengite (Si5Fe3), and awaruite (Ni3Fe). The moissanite and native, intermetallic, and amorphous phases associated with it occur as rare disseminated grains of various size in rocks of three rock complexes in the basement of the Bobruisk inlier. This indicates that the mineralization is overprinted. The whole set of crystalline and amorphous phases found in association with moissanite is proposed to be named bobruiskites. The minerals were most probably formed by an meteorite impact on rocks of the East European craton.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors highly appreciate the involvement of V.V. Solodilova, N.S. Zavadich, and A.V. Belyashov in various phases of our study of BRS and for help with this study. The authors thank the reviewers for constructive criticism, which led us to improve the wording of the manuscript.

Funding

This study was carried out with the use of research equipment at the Center for the Collective Use of Scientific Equipment for Isotopic–Geochemical Studies at Vinogradov Institute of Geochemistry, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, in Irkutsk, was financially supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project no. 18-05-00351a, and was partly conducted under government-financed research project IX.129.1.3. no. 0350-2016-0029.

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  1. Vinogradov Institute of Geochemistry, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Irkutsk, Russia

    V. I. Levitskiy, I. V. Levitskiy & L. A. Pavlova

  2. TESCAN, St. Petersburg, Russia

    M. V. Lukashova

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  1. V. I. Levitskiy
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Levitskiy, V.I., Levitskiy, I.V., Pavlova, L.A. et al. Moissanite in Rocks of the Bobruisk Basement Inlier, Belarusian Crystalline Massif, East European Craton. Petrology 31, 237–260 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0869591123020042

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