Kimberlite pipes |
Kimberlite pipes |
Feb 28 2012, 10:41 AM
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#1
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Rock Bar! Group: Members Posts: 426 Joined: 6-February 04 Member No.: 84 |
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 |
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Jul 6 2015, 02:21 AM
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#2
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Shovel Buster! Group: Members Posts: 118 Joined: 22-December 10 From: USA Member No.: 7,480 |
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Jul 6 2015, 08:03 AM
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#3
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Rock Bar! Group: Members Posts: 613 Joined: 16-October 08 From: Central Colorado Member No.: 6,813 |
It is not all Doom and Gloom, A few pictures of one of my recent prospecting trips... Enjoy! Pic 1, core sample from the bottom of the pit of pic 2. Pic 2, Kimberlite with the green lava ash, mostly weathered. DD DD, Looks like you are onto a deposit with characteristics of the State Line Mining District. As far as I know, all kimberlite pipes in the district carry diamonds. Now you just have to wash the gems out of the sticky blue-green mud. If you are in a crater lake setting, then the diamonds and garnets will be highly concentrated over the eons of wave action as they cannot wash out away from the pipe diatreme that is surrounded by granite walls. If you are in a stream setting that is cutting across the pipe, then the diamonds will concentrate as other heavy minerals do. They are just harder to collect the further away from the pipe that the stream travels. I've attached a photo of a stream that is developing a placer containing the blue-green clay that I discovered 10 or 11 years ago. You can see the close resemblance to what you've found. I certainly am excited by the looks of your pit photos. Congratulations! -------------------- Annual Dues Paying Member Since 2008
Tonko Mining Company "Some day this crater is going to be a greatly talked about place, and if the above credit is due, as is certainly the case, I would like to have it generally known for the sake of the children." Daniel Moreau Barringer 2/1/1912 in a letter about the Barringer Meteorite Crater, Arizona USA |
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Jul 6 2015, 03:40 PM
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#4
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Shovel Buster! Group: Members Posts: 118 Joined: 22-December 10 From: USA Member No.: 7,480 |
Astro,
As it is this deposit is quite some distance away from the state line, but so far the test we ran looks good, waiting on the bulk sample permits then we will give it a good going over. Like your picture, that looks like a run to me, meaning the lava flowed away from the pipe and formed a thick layer of kimberlite that's now in the weathering process. Needs sampling!! DD DD, Looks like you are onto a deposit with characteristics of the State Line Mining District. As far as I know, all kimberlite pipes in the district carry diamonds. Now you just have to wash the gems out of the sticky blue-green mud. If you are in a crater lake setting, then the diamonds and garnets will be highly concentrated over the eons of wave action as they cannot wash out away from the pipe diatreme that is surrounded by granite walls. If you are in a stream setting that is cutting across the pipe, then the diamonds will concentrate as other heavy minerals do. They are just harder to collect the further away from the pipe that the stream travels. I've attached a photo of a stream that is developing a placer containing the blue-green clay that I discovered 10 or 11 years ago. You can see the close resemblance to what you've found. I certainly am excited by the looks of your pit photos. Congratulations! |
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