Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Gold/Mining/Energy : Winspear Resources -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lilian Debray who wrote (5693)	4/16/1998 10:28:00 PM
From: Walt	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 26850

Good description but I will try to elaborate some: Breccia is a geological term used to describe a rock consisting of angular fragments. So there are a number of different types of breccias which came about in a number of different ways. As an example you could have a mudstone breccia where angular pieces of broken sandstone got covered in mud and metamorphosed into rock. Or you could have a kimberlite pipe errupting to surface with angular fragments of wall rock getting mixed in with the kimberlite. That is one type of kimberlite breccia. Now I dont want to make this overly complicated but kimberlites can be pretty complicated beasts. The erruptions can be very gaseous so imagine a pipe bursting to surface with a big gaseous blast proceeding it, then the kimberlite coming up to fill the pipe with other big gas bubbles coming up through the kimberlite. The stuff which gets thrown into the air falls around the pipe forming the cator facies. Pieces of kimberlite cool and then get shattered forming angular pieces which in turn get surounded by volcanic ash forming another type of breccia. Or kimberlite could come to the surface get depre from the surface mixed in with it and fall back into the pipe. Giving you another type of kimberlite breccia with pieces of coal and micro fossils from surface mixed in with it. There are kimberlites and then there are kimberlites. No one has ever seen a kimberlite erruption however by studing the known kimberlite pipes and comparing this with present day volcanic erruptions the geologists who specialize in this stuff have a pretty good idea of what went on. Volumes have been written on this stuff and some of the data is so complex, detailed and technical that only another kimberlite expert could understand it. I have a vague idea of what is going on. Kimberlites seem to be unigue or unusually in that they occur very quickly are dramatic but short lived erruptions and occur in clusters. Facies is a word used in geology, not just for kimberlites, it means that you have a rock type which can be subdivided into facies by differences in appearence or composition. Thus you could have a granite which can be divided into a coarse, medium or fine grained facies or you might be able to divid it into a red, pink and grey facies. Likewise kimberlites can be divided into a number of different facies. Hope I havent completely muddled the situation. regards Walt