| Title | Abrasion of kimberlite pebbles in a tumbling mill: implications for diamond exploration |
| Download | Downloads |
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| Licence | Please note the adoption of the Open Government Licence - Canada
supersedes any previous licences. |
| Author | Cummings, D I; Kjarsgaard, B A ; Russell, H A J; Sharpe, D R |
| Source | Geological Survey of Canada, Current Research (Online) no. 2011-7, 2011, 12 pages, https://doi.org/10.4095/288022  Open Access |
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| Year | 2011 |
| Publisher | Natural Resources Canada |
| Document | serial |
| Lang. | English |
| Media | on-line; digital |
| File format | pdf (Adobe Acrobat Reader) |
| Subjects | economic geology; kimberlites; diamond; lithology; pebble lithology; sediment transport; transportation; dispersal patterns; sediment dispersal; abrasion; Cenozoic; Quaternary |
| Illustrations | graphs; photographs; cross-sections; tables |
| Program | GEM: Geo-mapping for Energy
and Minerals Diamonds |
| Released | 2011 06 07 |
| Abstract | Tumbling mill experiments were performed to quantify the rate at which pebble-sized kimberlite cubes abrade (lose mass) during transport relative to basalt, gabbro, tonalite, and sandstone clasts from
the Canadian Shield. The kimberlite pebbles lost mass 3 to 3500 times faster than Canadian Shield pebbles. One massive volcaniclastic kimberlite cube disaggregated completely into sand- and mud-sized particles after only several hours of soaking
before the experiments started. These results suggest that some kimberlite lithologies will break down rapidly to sand- and mud-sized particles upon entrainment, and that other kimberlite lithologies, while losing mass more slowly, may still abrade
up to an order of magnitude faster than common shield lithologies as they are dispersed across the landscape. |
| GEOSCAN ID | 288022 |
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