Volcanoes Under The Sand
Date:	98-10-06 16:31:55 EDT
From:	Volcanic@WebWorldInc.COM (Daniel J. Karnes)
To:	phikent@aol.com

Hi,

I noticed your link to the images of the buried volcanoes and what
you probably have there are Kimberlites. These puppies are usually
grouped like that and are essentially vertical explosions of very
hot material from the mantle-lithospheric boundary which explode
upwards starting at 40-50 MPH eventually reaching supersonic speed
as they approach the earths surface. When one of these things comes
up - you don't know it until the ground jiggles a wee bit then BOOM!
A kimberlite typically completes its journey from 150 miles or more
down in as little as 15 minutes rather then tens hundreds or even
thousands of years as in hte case of most volcanoes.

Kimberlites tend to be grouped as you see in the image like a shotgun
blast. All of them coming up at about the same time. There is no known
mechanism behind Kimberlites, but some scientists believe they are
related to shockwaves set up inside the earth after large asteroid
impacts or other cataclysmic events in the earths crust.

Another interesting thing about Kimberlites is their high rates of
ascent enable them to bring diamonds and other nifty goodies from deep
inside the earth without reducing them to their base elements through
adibatic combustion. There is a new diamond mine near where your image
was acquired, and there are other groups of Kimberlites in New Mexico,
Arkansas and a couple of other places in the U.S.

Oh, they also dont tend to erupt once they have lost their energy and
that probably happens in the space of 30 minutes to an hour. Last known
eruption of a Kimberlite type volcano was in Peru at Nilahue in 1959 I
believe.

-djk


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   Daniel J. Karnes