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A common origin for Thai/Cambodian rubies and blue and violet sapphires from Yogo Gulch, Montana, U.S.A.?

  • Aaron C. Palke EMAIL logo , Jacqueline Wong , Charles Verdel and Janaína N. Ávila
Published/Copyright: February 28, 2018
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American Mineralogist
From the journal American Mineralogist Volume 103 Issue 3

Abstract

A wide number of genetic models have been proposed for volcanically transported ruby and sapphire deposits around the world. In this contribution we compare the trace element chemistry, mineral and melt inclusions, and oxygen isotope ratios in blue to reddish-violet sapphires from Yogo Gulch, Montana, U.S.A., with rubies from the Chantaburi-Trat region of Thailand and the Pailin region of Cambodia. The similarities between Thai/Cambodian rubies and Yogo sapphires suggest a common origin for gem corundum from both deposits. Specifically, we advance a model whereby sapphires and rubies formed through a peritectic melting reaction when the lamprophyre or basalts that transported the gem corundum to the surface partially melted Al-rich lower crustal rocks. Furthermore, we suggest the protolith of the rubies and sapphires was an anorthosite or, in the case of Thai/Cambodian rubies, an anorthosite subjected to higher pressures and converted into a garnet-clinopyroxenite. In this model the rubies and sapphires are rightfully considered to be xenocrysts in their host basalts or lamprophyre; however, in this scenario they are not “accidental” xenocrysts but their formation is intimately and directly linked to the magmas that transported them to the surface. The similarities in these gem corundum deposits suggests that the partial melting, non-accidental xenocryst model may be more wide-reaching and globally important than previously realized. Importantly, in both cases the gem corundum has an ostensibly “metamorphic” trace element signature, whereas the presence of silicate melt (or magma) inclusions shows they ought to be considered to be “magmatic” rubies and sapphires. This discrepancy suggests that existing trace element discriminant diagrams intended to separate “metamorphic” from “magmatic” gem corundum ought to be used with caution.

Keywords: Sapphire; ruby; Yogo Gulch; melt inclusions; corundum; gemology

Acknowledgments

Many thanks go to Jannine Cooper from GNS, New Zealand, for analyzing the corundum standards by laser-fluorination. The authors thank Charlotte Allen from QUT for her help with LA-ICP-MS analyses. We are grateful to Chi Ma of Caltech for his help with EPMA measurements. This work was initiated while one author (A.P.) was a R.T. Liddicoat Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and many thanks are owed to GIA for their support. Thanks also go to Will Heierman of http://corunduminium.com for providing samples for this study and for helpful discussions about Montana sapphires. We appreciate Richard Hughes of Lotus Gemology and John Koivula, Nathan Renfro, and Mike Breeding of the Gemological Institute of America as well for sharing their knowledge of Southeast Asian and American gem corundum deposits. We also thank Ian Graham and Lisa Baldwin for their constructive reviews and Associate Editor Aaron Celestian.

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Received: 2017-4-15
Accepted: 2017-11-30
Published Online: 2018-2-28
Published in Print: 2018-3-26

© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2018-6164
Keywords for this article
Sapphire; ruby; Yogo Gulch; melt inclusions; corundum; gemology

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Highlights and Breakthroughs
  2. Titan mineralogy: A window on organic mineral evolution
  3. Outlooks in Earth and Planetary Materials
  4. Prospects for mineralogy on Titan
  6. Biodegradabiliy of spherical mesoporous silica particles (MCM-41) in simulated body fluid (SBF)
  8. Modeling of trace elemental zoning patterns in accessory minerals with emphasis on the origin of micrometer-scale oscillatory zoning in zircon
  10. Experimental calibration and implications of olivine-melt vanadium oxybarometry for hydrous basaltic arc magmas
  12. IR spectroscopy and OH− in silicate garnet: The long quest to document the hydrogarnet substitution
  14. A mineralogical archive of the biogeochemical sulfur cycle preserved in the subsurface of the Río Tinto system
  16. Water diffusion in silica glass through pathways formed by hydroxyls
  18. A new optical cell for in situ Raman spectroscopy, and its application to study sulfur-bearing fluids at elevated pressures and temperatures
  20. Observations on three-dimensional measurement of confined fission track lengths in apatite using digital imagery
  22. Revision of the CaCO3–MgCO3 phase diagram at 3 and 6 GPa
  24. Redox-controlled dissolution of monazite in fluids and implications for phase stability in the lithosphere
  26. Crystal structure of CaSiO3 perovskite at 28–62 GPa and 300 K under quasi-hydrostatic stress conditions
  28. A common origin for Thai/Cambodian rubies and blue and violet sapphires from Yogo Gulch, Montana, U.S.A.?
  30. Submicrometer yttrian zircon coating and arborescent aeschynite microcrystals on truncated bipyramidal anatase: An electron microscopy study of miarolitic cavities in the Cuasso al Monte granophyre (Varese, Italy)
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