Lake Ellen Kimberlite Lake Ellen Kimberlite The Lake Ellen Kimberlite is a poorly exposed volcanic breccia located about northeast of Crystal Falls in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The first publication in 1981 describing the feature led to speculation that this or similar kimberlites in the area might have been the source of the diamonds discovered a century before in Wisconsin as well as a period of exploration by several minerals firms. The kimberlite was discovered in 1971 when a logging road was bulldozed through the area exposing the unusual looking rock. The exposure consists of several small areas otherwise overlain by glacial
Kimberlite significant amounts of forsteritic olivine, with lesser amounts of pyrope garnet, Cr-diopside, magnesian ilmenite, and spinel. Olivine lamproites were previously called group II kimberlite or orangeite in response to the mistaken belief that they only occurred in South Africa. Their occurrence and petrology, however, are identical globally and should not be erroneously referred to as kimberlite. Olivine lamproites are ultrapotassic, peralkaline rocks rich in volatiles (dominantly HO). The distinctive characteristic of olivine lamproites is phlogopite macrocrysts and microphenocrysts, together with groundmass micas that vary in composition from phlogopite to "tetraferriphlogopite" (anomalously Al-poor phlogopite requiring Fe to enter the tetrahedral site).