Birch Mountains kimberlite field the Phoenix and Legend pipes. The diatremes within the field include: Birch Mountains kimberlite field The Birch Mountains kimberlite field is a cluster of kimberlitic volcanic pipes or diatremes in north-central Alberta, Canada that were emplaced during a period of kimberlitic volcanism in the Late Cretaceous epoch. As of 2011, 8 diatremes had been discovered in the field, and diamonds and microdiamononds had been recovered during sampling programs. The Birch Mountain (BM) kimberlite field was discovered in 1998 and lies about north of Edmonton and northwest of Fort McMurray. It is part of the Northern Alberta kimberlite province, along with
Kimberlite the extreme magma composition that it reflects in terms of low silica content and high levels of incompatible trace-element enrichment make an understanding of kimberlite petrogenesis important. In this regard, the study of kimberlite has the potential to provide information about the composition of the deep mantle and melting processes occurring at or near the interface between the cratonic continental lithosphere and the underlying convecting asthenospheric mantle. Many kimberlite structures are emplaced as carrot-shaped, vertical intrusions termed "pipes". This classic carrot shape is formed due to a complex intrusive process of kimberlitic magma, which inherits a large proportion of CO