Interesting discoveries at Crater of Diamonds
MURFREESBORO — With more than 40 different rocks and minerals at Crater of Diamonds State Park, visitors can make interesting discoveries every day, according to park officials.
While most are fairly easy to identify, a few require closer examination. One unusual stone visitors occasionally find is called a pseudomorph, and the name itself offers a clue as to why this type of mineral can be hard to recognize, the park officials said in a news release.
The word pseudomorph means “false form.” These strange specimens develop when one mineral replaces another but maintains the shape of the original. The resulting stone has the appearance of one mineral but the density, hardness, and other characteristics of another.
The most common pseudomorph found at Crater of Diamonds State Park is called a silicate, after calcite pseudomorph. Silicate is a component of many minerals, including quartz and jasper. Calcite from the park is a soft mineral, with a cloudy white color and a flat and boxy shape.
A silicate after calcite pseudomorph usually looks like a cluster of calcite crystals that has melted together. Unlike the native calcite, however, it can be several different colors, depending on other elements in the silicate when it dissolved and replaced the calcite underground.
The park was last plowed on Sept. 6, and the most recent significant rain was on Sept. 3. The following are diamond finds for the week of Sept. 3 — 100 points equals 1 carat:
• Sept. 3 — Kaitlyn Patterson, Tucson, Ariz., 6-point white; Andrew Pape, Plymouth, Wisc., 47-point brown; Catrina Avery, Fair Grove, Mo., 1-carat brown.
• Sept. 4 — Rebecca Krieg, Independence, Mo., 23-point white.
• Sept. 5 — Martha McAdams, Mountain View, Mo., 30-point brown.
• Sept. 6 — McAdams, 7-point white.
• Sept. 8 — McAdams, 8-point white.
• Sept. 9 — Russell and Connie Gray, Lesage, W.Va., three 1-point whites, two 2-point whites, 2-point yellow, two 4-point whites, 5-point brown, 8-point brown, 12-point white, 14-point white, 39-point white.