A French tourist on holiday in the US will head home with memories to last a lifetime after a remarkable diamond discovery in a national park.
Julien Navas, from Paris, travelled to the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas on 11 January and rented a diamond hunting kit.
Navas spent the day toiling in the mud, discovering several ‘interesting rocks’ before heading to the Diamond Discovery Centre to consult the staff.
After an examination, one of the rocks was determined to be a 7.46-carat brown diamond, described as ‘deep chocolate’ in colour.
The discovery was the fifth of 11 diamonds recovered from the park this year and is the largest since 2020. The stone – named the ‘Carine Diamond’ – is the eighth largest found since the area was designated a state park in 1972.
An estimated 75,000 diamonds have been discovered in the soil of the park since 1906, including the ‘Uncle Sam’ stone, a 40.23-carat diamond unearthed in 1923. The Uncle Sam is the largest uncut diamond ever found in the US.
“This part of Arkansas is loaded with diamonds thanks to a violent volcanic vent eruption that took place roughly 100 million years ago,” writes Sarah Kuta for Smithsonian Magazine.
“The powerful explosion carried rocks from Earth’s mantle up to the surface and left an 81-acre crater in its wake. Three types of diamonds — white, yellow, and brown — are common in the region, as are gemstones such as quartz, agate, garnet, amethyst and jasper, among others.”
Navas plans to divide the diamond into two smaller stones and gift them to his fiancé and daughter.
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| Julien Navas plans to divide the diamond into two stones and gift them to his fiancé and daughter. | Source: Crater of Diamonds State Park |
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| The discovery was determined to be a 7.46-carat brown diamond. | Source: Crater of Diamonds State Park |
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