Kimberlite
Kimberlite is an igneous rock best known for sometimes containing diamonds. It is named after the town of Kimberley in South Africa, where the discovery of an 83.5-carat (16.70 g) diamond called the Star of South Africa in 1869 spawned a diamond rush, eventually creating the Big Hole.
Kimberlite occurs in the Earth's crust in vertical structures known as kimberlite pipes as well as igneous dykes and sills. Kimberlite pipes are the most important source of mined diamonds today. The consensus on kimberlites is that they are formed deep within the mantle. Formation occurs at depths between 150 and 450 kilometres (93 and 280 mi), potentially from anomalously enriched exotic mantle compositions, and they are erupted rapidly and violently, often with considerable carbon dioxide and other volatile components. It is this depth of melting and generation which makes kimberlites prone to hosting diamond xenocrysts.
Kimberlite has attracted more attention than its relative rarity might suggest that it deserves. This is largely because it serves as a carrier of diamonds and garnet peridotite mantle xenoliths to the Earth's surface. Its probable derivation from depths greater than any other igneous rock type, and the extreme magma composition that it reflects in terms of low silica content and high levels of incompatible trace element enrichment, make an understanding of kimberlite petrogenesis important. In this regard, the study of kimberlite has the potential to provide information about the composition of the deep mantle and about melting processes occurring at or near the interface between the cratonic continental lithosphere and the underlying convecting asthenospheric mantle.
Podcasts:
-
by Kimberly Wyatt
-
by Kimberly Wyatt
-
by Kimberly Wyatt
-
by Kimberly Wyatt
-
by Kimberly Wyatt
Stars In Your Eyes
by: Kimberly WyattIt’s what you want
It’s what you need
Get it started
I won’t stop
Pre party at the crib
Get it in
Call a cab
Let the night begin
Swedish chicks
Model girls
Same song all around the world
Rent money spend it up tonight
And if you ain’t drunk yet
You ain’t doing it right
And I got a feeling I’m getting mine tonight
You and I ignite like dynamite
Hey young world keep it shining bright
Fresh as a feeling like you’re drinking Sprite
Do the right thing like a man spike
So grab a glass cuz it’s on tonight
Dumb fly kicks gold bottles of spade
This is the life when you know you’ve made
No waiting all laughing
Let’s get this party happening
And then she said
It’s what you want
It’s what you need
Get it started
I won’t stop until I see the sun
Stars in your eyes
We’re goin’ hard tonight
DJ play my song
This is the glamorous life
Closing out the bar until the end of the night
We’re going hard tonight
Movement speaks through the beat feeling I’m electric
Silver moon shining through sitting so majestic
Breathing in the bright lights
Cinderella all night
Flying in my fairy tale will take you higher
And then she said
It’s what you want
It’s what you need
Get it started
I won’t stop until I see the sun
Stars in your eyes
We’re goin’ hard tonight
DJ play my song
This is the glamorous life
Closing out the bar until the end of the night
We’re goin’ hard tonight
Meet me in the clouds at the top of the Coliseum
A private serenade between you and I
The moon is coming out to catch a glimpse of the twilight
A never ending story by you and I
Draw circles round the world
Feel the wind in my hair
Beyond the universe we can go anywhere
Take a fast ride on a shooting star