You could spend a lifetime looking for diamonds at Arkansas' Crater of Diamonds State Park, but it only took 14-year-old Kalel Langford about 30 minutes on Saturday to find a real keeper, USA Today reports. "Its color was so dark that we weren't sure if it was a diamond, but we knew we needed to have it looked at," said Kalel's father, Craig Langford. It's a good thing they did — the dark-brown stone Kalel stumbled upon is a 7.44-carat diamond.
The diamond is described as being about the size of a pinto bean, and it is the seventh-largest stone to have been discovered at Crater of Diamonds since 1972. The park's largest diamond, discovered in 1978, weighs in at 8.61 carats.
Kalel named his diamond "Superman's Diamond" because, as his father noted, "When we chose to name [our son] Kalel, we didn't realize that [Kal-El] was also Superman's birth name."
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Kalel found the precious gem in a southern portion of the park, in a stream. "Conditions were ideal for Kalel to find his diamond," said park interpreter Waymon Cox. "About an inch of rain fell on the plowed search area during the week. A heavy rain can uncover larger diamonds near the surface. Diamonds have a metallic-looking shine and are often easier to spot on top of the ground.”
Kalel is going to keep the diamond, he says. After all, it's a pretty nifty souvenir.
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