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Kimberlite occurs in the Earth's crust in vertical structures known as kimberlite pipes, as well as igneous dykes and can also occur as horizontal sills. Kimberlite pipes are the most important source of mined diamonds today. The consensus on kimberlites is that they are formed deep within Earth's mantle.
The ML rocks are not considered to be archetypal kimberilte and have been variously classified as alkaline ultramafic rocks, hybrid alkaline ultramafic rocks, alkali olivine basalt and basanite; they are difficult to classify because of strong clay alteration that has obliterated most of their original mineralogy.
Lamproite pipes operate similarly to kimberlite pipes, except that the boiling water and volatile compounds contained in the magma act corrosively on the overlying rock, resulting in a broader cone of eviscerated rock (the ejection of this rock also forms a tuff ring, like kimberlite eruptions). This broad cone is then filled with volcanic ash ...
The ML pipes form part of the Northern Alberta kimberlite province, along with the nearby Birch Mountains kimberlite field and the Buffalo Head Hills kimberlite field.They were discovered in 1989-90 just north of Mountain Lake (55.456291n 117.714510w), which lies about 75 km (47 mi) northeast of Grande Prairie, Alberta.
It is generally accepted that the pipe was emplaced about 180 million years ago. The lake Ellen Kimberlite is popular with rock hounds as the classic indicator minerals (pyrope, magnesian ilmenite and chrome diopside) for kimberlite are easily found in the material, though few are of gem quality and size. While there was considerable interest ...
The Birch Mountains kimberlite field is a cluster of kimberlitic volcanic pipes or diatremes in north-central Alberta, Canada that were emplaced during a period of kimberlitic volcanism in the Late Cretaceous epoch. [1] As of 2011, 8 diatremes had been discovered in the field, and diamonds and microdiamononds had been recovered during sampling ...
The Drybones Bay kimberlite pipe is a diamondiferous diatreme in the Slave craton of the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is the largest diatreme discovered in the ...
Aerial view of the Moses Rock Dike diatreme in San Juan County, Utah [1] A diatreme , sometimes known as a maar-diatreme volcano, is a volcanic pipe associated with a gaseous explosion. When magma rises up through a crack in Earth's crust and makes contact with a shallow body of groundwater , rapid expansion of heated water vapor and volcanic ...