Post by RedRimmed Desert on Mar 24, 2015 15:41:10 GMT -6
Once I took a trip to Crater of Diamonds State Park, with my L-rods, booking in late fall season for 14 days. The thing about planning a late fall trip, people tend to pack out the parks (on the last couple weekends that are nice warm days with plenty of sunshine). Arriving on a Thursday, the weather didn't hold out for the entire weekend. Sunday morning I had water in my tent, it had really rained a lot during the night. Arkansas had been in a severe drought, in fact I passed through some dense smoke filled areas, to get here at the park. The ground was still very dry, until the Sunday night rain. Severe weather in northern part of the state, dropped a lot of rain during Tuesday night stop over on the way also. Fire hazard dropped significantly, so now campfires were permitted at the camping sites.
On Monday decided to walk around the mine field, trying the eye-balling method (without using dowsing rods) while it was still very wet. A good rain is supposed to help you find large diamonds, they really sparkle in the sunlight. No diamonds found by slopping around in the muddy field, my boots getting heavy with clay stuck to them. Decided to try looking for agates instead using the eye-balling method again. The rocks brought back to be inspected at the mine check station, every one of them turned out to be only sandstone. These agates were formed in the sandstone but will show signs of white cryptocrystalline quartz on the edges. The whole day of ordinary rock-hounding methods (again without dowsing) didn't produce much of anything, why even the couple jasper stones collected were obviously too pitted after cleaning.
The SE section of mine field is where many of the visitors dig, millions of people, but that is a good area for quartz crystal points. A guy I talked to, found in this area 2 yellow diamonds in a day, by scratching the side of furrows with a hand 3-4 prong type garden tool. You just sit on the edge of a furrow, raking the surface, watch for a sparkle as it falls. Most of the regulars I'd talked to who go there every year, find a lot of diamonds in the SW corner of the mine field, which is where the ore vein runs through, at a NW/SE angle.
One of the geologists, at the mine inspection team said, "a more recent geological survey found 2 addition diamond pipes" (on the NE edge of main ore pipe and on the SE edge). Only one place does any of the ore body come into the mine field, where the vein is found (no where else). It was the older lady geologist, she took me to her office, got out a geological map, to point out the 2 newly discovered diamond pipes. At the Am-C1a flag which was map dowsed at home first, is a lamproite diamond ore vein from the SE of pipe (in hill area) comes into the mine field.
The place it enters would be this area, not too far below the ground surface (3-4 feet down). When they do the furrows, plenty of dirt is pushed up over on top.
On Monday decided to walk around the mine field, trying the eye-balling method (without using dowsing rods) while it was still very wet. A good rain is supposed to help you find large diamonds, they really sparkle in the sunlight. No diamonds found by slopping around in the muddy field, my boots getting heavy with clay stuck to them. Decided to try looking for agates instead using the eye-balling method again. The rocks brought back to be inspected at the mine check station, every one of them turned out to be only sandstone. These agates were formed in the sandstone but will show signs of white cryptocrystalline quartz on the edges. The whole day of ordinary rock-hounding methods (again without dowsing) didn't produce much of anything, why even the couple jasper stones collected were obviously too pitted after cleaning.
The SE section of mine field is where many of the visitors dig, millions of people, but that is a good area for quartz crystal points. A guy I talked to, found in this area 2 yellow diamonds in a day, by scratching the side of furrows with a hand 3-4 prong type garden tool. You just sit on the edge of a furrow, raking the surface, watch for a sparkle as it falls. Most of the regulars I'd talked to who go there every year, find a lot of diamonds in the SW corner of the mine field, which is where the ore vein runs through, at a NW/SE angle.
One of the geologists, at the mine inspection team said, "a more recent geological survey found 2 addition diamond pipes" (on the NE edge of main ore pipe and on the SE edge). Only one place does any of the ore body come into the mine field, where the vein is found (no where else). It was the older lady geologist, she took me to her office, got out a geological map, to point out the 2 newly discovered diamond pipes. At the Am-C1a flag which was map dowsed at home first, is a lamproite diamond ore vein from the SE of pipe (in hill area) comes into the mine field.
The place it enters would be this area, not too far below the ground surface (3-4 feet down). When they do the furrows, plenty of dirt is pushed up over on top.