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Kilbourne Hole Peridot

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Kilbourne Hole Peridot By John R. Fuhrbach This little-lznown source of gem-quality peri- he use of peridot as a gem dates to 1500 B.C., when it was clot, located in southwestern New Mexico, pro- 1mined by Egyptian slaves on the island of Zabargad, off duces small but brilliant gems. IZilbourne Hole the Egyptian coast. The Egyptians knew the prized material peridot is found in the explosion debris of a by its Greelz naine topau'on (allegedly from the Greelz verb "to 180,000-year-oldvolcano, usually in elliptical seelz," because the island source was often enveloped in mist; "xenolith bombs." Kilbourne Hole ueridot has Giibelin, 1975).In 1790, mineralogist A.G. Werner named a greater color range than the San Carlos, the typically green mineral olivine, after the Latin for "olive." Arizona, material and an additional character- istic inclusion. Although the deposit is not Today, the mineral is still referred to by geologists and being mined commercially, thousands of carats mineralogists as olivine, but by gemologists as peridot-a of gem-qualily peridot hove been found there. French naine adapted from the Arabic faradat, meaning "gem- stone" (Giibelin, 1981).Composition varies along a solid- solution series between forsterite and fayalite, but most single-crystal material falls within the range of 70%-90% forsterite. Peridot occurs virtually worldwide and perhaps through- out the universe. The most notable gem deposits are found in Myanmar (formerly Bunna, which furnishes the largest cut gems) and Arizona, but other noteworthy localities are in ABOUT WE AUTHOR Antarctica, Australia, Brazil, China, Finland, Germany, Hawaii, Mr. Fuhrtxch is a gawkgist and retail^ in Italy, Kenya, Mexico, New Caledonia, Norway, and Russia (see, Amarillo, Tms, who s~~ in unW gem- e.g., Arein, 1987).In addition, peridot was found on the moon stones and jwelry. by the crews of Apollo 11 and Apollo 12, and has repeatedly AcknowMgments: John I. Koivula and Gnmanuel been encountered in meteorites (pallasites). fiitsdr of GIA habed with Msions and sax- One of the lesser-lznown deposits is Kilboume Hole, New trophotometry, respective&. George B. ~squithof Texas Tech UniversWy and Marc L. Wdson of the Mexico, which was briefly described by Lindberg (1975)and New Mexico Bureau of Mines confim?ed the bbniity mentioned by Shaub and Shaub (1975)but has not otherwise of associated minerals. At the GIA Gem Trade been investigated in the literature. Although well-formed sin- Laboratory, C. W.Fryer dd the X-ray difiacbn analysis of inclusions. Meredith Merm and Me gle crystals have not been found at Kilboume, several fragments Moon of Gl4 perfmed the inbred and U.V. -visi- as large as 33 ct and several nodules with areas of cuttable peri- ble spectroscopy. Kurt Nassau facilitated the C@ dot as large as 128 ct have been examined and cut by the irradiation experiment. Special thanks to Patricia Robertson-Fuhtixchfor her companionship, tire author (figure 1). less cokting ofspmfnw, and pmfreadiw and to WardJ. Gubelin for reading the final draff. Gems & Gemology, Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 16-27. LOCATION AND ACCESS 0 1992 Gemobghd Institute of America Kilboume Hole is a late Pleistocene (approximately 180,000 years old; Seager et al., 1984)volcanic crater (figure2) located Kilbournc Hole Peridot GElMS & GEMOLOGY Spring 1992 Figure 1. Kilbozirne Hole, New Mexico, is one of the least studied and yet most interesting of the lmown localities for gem-quality peridot. This 9.58-ct Kilbourne Hole peridot, sur- rounded by diarnonds, is set in an 181< gold ring designed by the author. Photo 0 Harold eS Erica Van Pelt. about 32 km (20 mi.) southwest of Las Cruces, New from late November through February. Even then, Mexico, and only about 20 lzm (12.5 mi.) north of five varieties of poisonous desert rattlesnakes inhab- the U.S. border with Mexico (figure 3).Access to the it the region; familiarity with desert survival is essen- deposit can be deterinined by following U.S. tial for camping in the area. Most of the land is under Geological Survey maps from the towns of Afton, government supervision, and access is unrestricted; New Mexico, or El Paso, Texas. The roads may be haz- the approximately one-third of the northeast section ardous, often with high clearances and deep sand, so that is on private land is fenced off. a four-wheel-drive all-terrain vehicle should be used. The altitude varies from 1,284 m (4,212 ft.) on GEOLOGY AND OCCURRENCE the southern rim of the maar to 1,330 m (4,362 ft.) at The elliptical Kilbourne Hole is approximately 3.2 the top of the eastern sand dunes and ridges, and lzm long x 2.2 kin wide. It is classified as a maar (a drops some 134 m (438ft.) from the eastern rhn of the crater formed by violent explosion without igneous caldera to the bottom of the caldera dry lalze. For sev- extrusion) and resembles other maars found in eral lzilometers around, the area consists of desert Germany, India, Mexico, and elsewhere in New sparsely vegetated with yucca and bush mesquite Mexico (Seager, 1987). Except to the south, it is sur- (again, see figure 2). Typical daytime temperatures rounded by a prominent rim of ejecta (material thrown in early July are approximately 4PC (117°F) at the out of an active volcano), that is as much as 46 m rim and 53°C (127°F)on the dry-lake bottom, with above the La Mesa plains and up to 107 m above the humidity of only 1%. What little rainfall there is crater floor. The outer walls of the rim have gentle occurs during the last weeks of August. Thus, water slopes; the inner walls are steep to vertical. is nonexistent and visitors must bring their own. The precrater roclzs belong to the early to middle Because of the intense heat most of the year, Pleistocene Camp Rice formation (Gile et al., 1981) prospecting and/or camping is recommended only overlain by the Afton basalt (again,see figure 3).Over Kilbourne Hole Peridot GEMS & GEMOLOGY Spring 1992 Figure 2. Icilbourne Hole is an extincl volcano, approx- imately 7 lzrn2 in area. Gem-qualityperidol is found scattered thro~lghout the area, having weathered out of the tuff-ringejecta that form the walls of the Icrater. The terrain in this extremely dry area is bar- ren, occupied primarily by bush mesqnite, yucca, and rat tlesnalzes. Figure 3. Kilbourne Hole lies in Doiia Ana County, New Mexico, close to the border with Mexico. The geologic map not only delineates the rim of the crater but also the various units that comprise the crater and the rim. The peridot-containing "xenolith bombs" have been found in situ primarily in Qe, the basalt explosion brec- cia; only a few have been found in the pyroclastic surge deposits, the upper unit of the tuff-ring ejecta. Geologic map by W. R. Seager, New Mexico State University. Kilbourne Hole Peridot GEMS 8: GEMOLOGY Spring 1992 these rocks lie the tuff-ring ejecta deposits, from the explosion phase of the crater's fonnation, which fonn the rim, back slopes, and upper half of the crater wall (again, see figure 2). The lower portion of the tuff- ring ejecta is absent in some areas and up to 50 m thiclz in others. It is a breccia that consists of angular blocks of Afton basalt in a matrix of unstratified pyro- clastic fall deposits, including mantle and lower-to- upper crustal "xenolith bombs" (Reiche, 1940).The upper part of the tuff-ring ejecta consists of much finer grained stratified pyroclastic-surge and pyro- clastic-fall deposits up to 35 m (about 115 ft.) thick on the east rim (Shoemaker, 1957; Hoffer, 1976; Brenner, 1979; Stuart and Brenner, 1979; Stuart, 1981). The peridot is an early crystallization, formed during the solidification of igneous roclts from the liquid n~agnlaticphase (Northrop, 1959; Giibelin, Fig~ue5. Fi'agmentary pieces o/'pendot, much of it 1975).Essentially, when the volcano erupted, it thew /'ace1 grade, are also found lying on the ground at ICilboume Hole. The large "frclgment" in the ca7- liquid magma into the atmosphere. As portions of ter here weighs 33 ct; most of the pieces [hat sur- the magma spun through the air, their outer surfaces round ~t are small (less than 2 ct) but of good color cooled first, retaining an elliptical shape due to the az~dclanty. spinning action. This outer crust acted as insulation, allowing the inolten interior enough time to cool that crystals could foml. Thus, peridot is found with augite ana diopside (and occasioilally enstatite and lower portion. Eons of weathering have exposed these bronzite) inside these basalt-coated "xenolith bombs" potato-shaped masses and left thousands lying on the (figure 4);which may be as large as 25 cin (about 10 ground above the caldera rim. The author and his in.) in diameter (Lindberg, 1974)) and as fragments wife recovered inore than 1,433 ct of facetable mate- (figure 5)lying on the ground. The "bombs" appear in rial in only five clays, entirely by ha~dpicl&g "bombs" sit11 only in the tuff-ring ejecta, most conlnloilly in the and fragments from the surface; several visits have yielded a total "production" of some 4,000 ct of cut- table peridot. However, there is no evidence in the lit- erature or at the loality that Kilboume Hole has ever Figure 4. Basalt-corited "xenolith bon~bs," like the been formally mined. one shown here, often contain gem-quality peri- dot. They can be picked up offthe surjace, where MATERIALS AND METHODS they have weathered out of the surroundil~gtuff ring.
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