2 April 2014

The wonder of cracking open a xenobomb

Posted by Callan Bentley

On “Border to Beltway”‘s visit to Kilbourne Hole, after we whet our appetite with Hunt’s Hole, Michael finds a xenobomb. Ernie and Boris look on with envy:

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A “xenobomb” is a xenolith (in this case, of mantle peridotite), slathered in a coating of lava and tossed out of a volcano in the middle of a liquid droplet (a bomb). Here’s what they look like in cross-section:

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You can experience some of the wonder of these extraordinary structures by exploring this macro GigaPan…
link