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kimberlite
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Kimberlite
Igneous rock that is ultramafic (containing very little silica); a type of alkaline peridotite with a porphyritic texture (larger crystals in a fine-grained matrix), containing mica in addition to olivine and other minerals. Kimberlite represents the world's principal source of diamonds.
Kimberlite is found in carrot-shaped pipelike intrusions called diatremes, where mobile material from very deep in the Earth's crust has forced itself upwards, expanding in its ascent. The material, brought upwards from near the boundary between crust and mantle, often altered and fragmented, includes diamonds. Diatremes are found principally near Kimberley, South Africa, from which the name of the rock is derived, and in the Yakut area of Siberia, Russia.
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