| Day 1. We left Adrian
in the morning and drove to Lake Ouachita State Park where we camped. |
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| We spent the day collecting minerals
near Magnet Cove, Arkansas |
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Our first stop was the Brady Mountain Dam. Here
Sarah explains the Ouachita Orogeny |
TJ and Jeremy are standing in front of spectacular
folds |
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We walked part way across the dam
to enjoy the view over Lake Ouachita. |
And took a group photo here. |
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Our second stop was the carbonatite
outcrop. Here Dr Hanson explains to the class how carbonatite forms
and why this is one of the coolest outcrops in the world - a rare chance
to see igneous calcite! |
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Heather is trying to collect a
piece of this world famous carbonatite |
At the same location, beautigul
little aegerine crystals can be found weathering out of the syenite. |
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Some of the local canines
came out to help us dig pyrite crystals out of a creek bed. |
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We collected tiny little
brookite crystals and talked about how it formed at our lunch stop. |
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We stopped at the novaculite
quarry. This time the crew was there working so Jeremy used his best
"good old boy" charm on the mine workers and got permission
for us to enter and collect samples. |
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Sarah didn't give us
a break here either. She lectured about the how the Arkansas novaculite,
famous for producing whetstones, formed. |
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Toxic lake of death |
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Because it was such
a nice day Sarah gave the students a break and headed back to camp where
they could play tourist and swim. |
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We returned to the campground
at Lake Ouachita State Park where we Jeremy and TJ cooked us up some
fine burgers and dogs. |
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| Day 3. We headed south to Crater
of Diamonds State Park. There was still a little drizzle from the storm
the night before but the weather was clearing. |
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At Crater of Diamonds State park
you can, for a small fee, venture out into a plowed field where diamonds
have weathered out of a lamprophyric dike. We rented screens and gave
it a shot. |
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Bryan and Brandon are trying their
hand at washing their screen full of mud |
Heather, Jeremy and TJ are doing
the same here |
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Sarah, enjoys the clearing
weather and marvels at the circus with 5 pounds of mud on each shoe.
The previous night's rain made the field quite a mess. |
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We then headed up to
Mount Ida and collected wavellite from a quarry there. |
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We had dinner at our favorite barbeque
palace, Stubby's. Jeremy and TJ took this part of the trip VERY seriously! |
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Very full and happy, we returned
to camp and had a campfire. |
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| Day 4.We got up with the Sun, broke
camp and suffered throught the LONG, 14 hour drive home.... |
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