Kimberlite characteristics

The first Kimberlites were described by Vanuxen in 1837 from Ludlowiville near Ithaca, New York state; however, the term Kimberlite was introduced by Lewis (1887) to describe the diamond-bearing, porphyritic mica peridotites of the Kimberley area of South Africa.

Kimberlites are highly magnesian (MgO > 25% weight) magmatic rocks which are enriched in volatiles (water, carbon dioxide, and fluorine) and carry anomalously high contents of elements such as K, Na, Ba, Sr, rare earth elements, Ti, Zr, Nb, and P.

In simple terms, Kimberlites, constitute a hybrid group of rocks that encompass a group of volatile rich (dominantly CO₂) potassic, ultrabasic rocks and that displays a pronounced inequigranular texture, resulting from the presence of macro-crysts (and/or mega-crysts) that are set in a fine grained matrix.

Owing to the great diversity in terms of their textural, mineralogical, petrographic, and geochemical characteristics, diverse definitions and classifications for Kimberlites were proposed.

Classification based on the textural and genetic variations:

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