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The Catoca kimberlite pipe is among the world's largest primary diamond deposits. The Catoca volcanic edifice is only slightly eroded. Kimberlitic rocks of various facies compose a crater of about 1 km in diameter and a diatreme. The structure of the pipe and mining conditions of the deposit are complicated by intense intrapipe tectonic processes related to large amplitude subsidence. Based on geological data, we pro pose a structural model of the deposit and a paleovolcanological model of the Catoca pipe formed during a full cycle beginning with a stage of active volcanism and completed by stages of gradually waning volcanic activity and sedimentation. It is suggested that the banded tuffisitic kimberlite of the crater zone was depos ited at the stage of active volcanic eruption from specific pyroclastic suspension as a low viscosity mixture of crystals and aqueous sol rich in serpentine.

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