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Virtual Vista: Crater of Diamonds State Park, Murfreesboro, Arkansas, USA

In south-central Arkansas, USA, there is a remarkable geologic location. At Crater of Diamonds State Park near Murfreesboro (below), an isolated volcanic eruption approximately 100 million years ago carried diamond bearing kimberlite to the surface. Discovery of this kimberlite and its diamonds led to establishment of the only commercial diamond mine in the United States in the early 1900's.

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Most of the diamonds extracted from this deeply weathered intrusion are small, industrial grade stones. However, there are rare discoveries of yellow (known in the diamond trade as "canary" diamonds), white, and blue diamonds of gem quality.

The largest diamond discovered at the diamond field was the Uncle Sam (40 carats); reputed to have sold for $150,000.

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Crater of Diamonds State Park is operated by the Arkansas State Parks Department and is the only site in the world where the public is permitted to dig for diamonds and keep any that are found. On average, one lucky digger finds a diamond each day that the park is open. Crater of Diamonds State Park is visible in the image above near the southern margin along the Little Missouri River.

To obtain additional information about Crater of Diamonds State Park, visit their website.

For a virtual overflight of the Murfreesboro Quadrangle, click on the link below

Murfreesboro Arkansas Fly By (2465.0K)

Points to Ponder:

1. Visit some web sites to learn more about how diamonds form. Where are diamonds thought to be formed on Earth

2. How do you think diamond-bearing rock was exposed in Arkansas?

Having trouble loading or viewing the video clip? You will need the DivX video codec for your media player to watch the video. The DivX codec is available free from www.divx.com. Click on the link or type the URL into your browser to go to the DivX download site. Once at the DivX site, follow the "DOWNLOAD" links until you locate the download "Standard DivX Codec (FREE)" hyperlink. Click on the link and download the small DivX codec file. The codec file may take a few minutes to load. Please be patient. Once the file is downloaded to your local computer, double click on the file to automatically install the Divx codec.

You may also discover that the Virtual Vistas work best with the Windows Media Player, available as a free download from www.microsoft.com. Click on the link or type the URL into your browser to go to the Microsoft web site. Once at the web site, type "windows media player" into the Search box, then click on the appropriate link to download the latest version of Windows Media Player.






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