Kimberlite pipe

A kimberlite pipe is an explosion propagation tube during a volcanic eruption. It has the form of a pipe-like channel with a diameter of 0.4–1 km, along which igneous solutions and gases broke through mainly on ancient platforms . Volcanic debris ( breccias ) cemented by solutions or a green-gray tuff-like rock, kimberlite, which consists of olivine , phlogopite , pyrope , carbonates and other minerals , and also has xenolith inclusions, are frozen in the explosion tube. These pipes (up to 10%) contain diamonds that are mined in South Africa , India , and since 1954 on the Central Siberian platform - in Yakutia . The first Yakut kimberlite pipe discovered by Larisa Popugaeva on August 21, 1954, was called "Zarnitsa" .

The kimberlite pipe is a gigantic pillar that ends at the top with a conical extension. With depth, the conical body narrows, resembling a giant carrot in shape, and at some depth passes into the vein . Kimberlite pipes are a kind of ancient volcanoes, the ground part of which is largely destroyed as a result of erosion processes . Currently, over 1,500 kimberlite bodies are known, of which 8-10% are diamondiferous rocks. According to experts, about 90% of the reserves of primary source diamonds are concentrated in kimberlite pipes, and about 10% - in lamproite pipes .

According to the conclusions of the Soviet geologist Natalia Sarsadsky , diamonds do not crystallize from kimberlite magma, which is generated in deep foci and is only a conveyor of diamonds.

• The Big Hole kimberlite pipe , the world's largest quarry dug by people manually without the use of equipment, is located in the center of Kimberley, South Africa.
• Udachnaya (kimberlite pipe) is one of the largest in the world, located in Yakutia.
• The world (kimberlite pipe) - one of the largest in the world, is also located in Yakutia.
• The pipe of the Mwadui mine is one of the largest in the world, located in Tanzania.
• Diamond lamproite

• American Museum of Natural History. "The Nature of Diamonds . "