Structural Setting and Productivity of the Kimberlites of the Arkhangelsk Province

The eruptive breccias near the village of Nenoksa on the Onega Peninsula of the White Sea being known for more than 40 years have been determined as kimberlitoides in 1968. Since then about 30 non-diamondiferous explosion pipes have been recognized in this region. The tectonical analysis permitted a regional kimberlite-controlling zone of activation to be recognized and traced. This zone extends for more than thousand kilometers from Cape Kanin Nos to Ladoga Lake at the junction of the Baltic Shield and the Russian Platform. According to data on morphostructural analysis and special radar survey; there are 13 probable kimberlite fields. The first diamondiferous pipe, Pomorskaya, was discovered in 1980 within the Zolotilskoe field when testing a magnetic anomaly. Further about fifty pipes have been discovered there, of which fifteen are diamondiferous. The pipes are of Late Devonian – Middle Carboniferous age. They break through the Vendian red rocks and are overlapped by the Carboniferous rocks. All known diamondiferous bodies are concentrated on the area of the buried Archean Kuloi Craton.