Kimberlite pipes Options

[leonard]

Here's a little item I found on another forum.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id...onds_to_surface



This thin slice of a kimberlite rock from northern Canada, seen through a microscope and in polarized light, shows colorful minerals caught up in magma that rose from deep within the Earth.

Leonard

[ASTROBLEME]

I use thin sections frequently but I thought it would be nice to add a "hand specimen" in here to help those prospecting for pipes to ID kimberlite in the field. Here's a pic of a kimberlite sample from my private collection. It came from a diamond bearing pipe in northwest Canada;




The interesting thing I've discovered is that some kimberlite thin sections look very much like meteorite thin sections, in a general way. Kimberlite grains are often rounded much like chondrules that are seen in meteorites. Here is a pic I just took of a thin section I have from a kimberlite pipe in Fayette County Pennsylvania;




Now compare that kimberlite thin section to a meteorite I found last summer;




You can see the rounded grains that I think are the result of high speed erosion, in the pipe on the way up, or in space when the dust grains accumulate at cosmic velocitiy. Of course this is only my opinion but it is rather interesting, don't ya think?

ASTROBLEME

[leonard]

I use thin sections frequently but I thought it would be nice to add a "hand specimen" in here to help those prospecting for pipes to ID kimberlite in the field. Here's a pic of a kimberlite sample from my private collection. It came from a diamond bearing pipe in northwest Canada;




The interesting thing I've discovered is that some kimberlite thin sections look very much like meteorite thin sections, in a general way. Kimberlite grains are often rounded much like chondrules that are seen in meteorites. Here is a pic I just took of a thin section I have from a kimberlite pipe in Fayette County Pennsylvania;




Now compare that kimberlite thin section to a meteorite I found last summer;




You can see the rounded grains that I think are the result of high speed erosion, in the pipe on the way up, or in space when the dust grains accumulate at cosmic velocitiy. Of course this is only my opinion but it is rather interesting, don't ya think?

ASTROBLEME

I'm ready for a trip to northern colorado whenever anyone that knows what they are doin wants an assistant.
Leonard