All life on Earth is born, grows, multiplies and, as a result, dies, giving way to new life. Only the stones lie motionless for centuries, until, under the influence of external factors - water, wind, sun, precipitation, they disintegrate and transform into crunchy sand underfoot. But they still have a life history, although very different from the life cycle of living creatures. The process of mineral formation, which occurs constantly, has occurred in all geological eras. Therefore, seemingly unchanged stones grow, and some even multiply. True, there is a significant difference between the growth of solid rocks and living organisms.
Life of stones
When you think about the mysterious world of minerals, many questions arise, such as do rocks grow in the earth? Natural mineral life forms are ubiquitous and, in a broad sense, are crystalline substances of inorganic origin.
Stones can:
- be the remains of destroyed sedimentary rocks;
- arise as a result of metamorphism;
- originate in the depths of our planet.
Most rocks are formed at great depths in a magma chamber, the temperature of which is more than 1,500°C, and the pressure is tens of thousands of atmospheres. As the temperature decreases, the fiery liquid masses, moving to higher and colder zones, begin to solidify. Their transition to a solid state is accompanied by crystallization of substances. As a result, a large amount of minerals is formed. Crystals differ from each other in appearance, color, structure, composition and properties. This is how igneous rocks appear, which play an important role in the structure of the earth’s crust.
The resulting stones eventually end up on the earth's surface. Subject to sedimentation and weathering, they will change their shape and collapse, transforming into fragments and then into sand. Almost imperceptibly, covered with other sediments, they will sink deeper and again be subject to heating, transforming into new rocks or melting into magma. As a result, in nature, stones grow and change, collapse and again turn into natural crystalline substances of inorganic origin.
But not all minerals are formed at depths when exposed to high temperatures. Some form in low-temperature conditions near the earth's surface. During later post-magmatic processes, precious crystals grow, which are widely used in jewelry (emeralds, sapphires, rubies, etc.).
Of course, in most cases, growth can be explained by natural endogenous and exogenous processes of mineral formation and simple mechanical laws. Although there are still stones that not only grow, but also multiply.
Trovants
These amazing rock formations can be found in many parts of the world, but they are most commonly found in Romania. Boulders, shrouded in mystery, fit perfectly into the romantic and mystical spirit that reigns on the territory of the state.
They have a streamlined shape of a ball or oval, and on the cut there is a spherical concentric zoning, similar to the cut of a tree, where the age rings are quite clearly visible. Locals call them “living stones.” According to legends, they are endowed with vital energy, able to grow, reproduce and breathe.
In more than 1,000 years, trovants grow by only 4-5 cm. But they are sensitive to changing weather conditions, and after heavy rainfall they grow significantly.
Scientific explanations
These fantastic assumptions are not groundless. Trovants can actually grow and change shape. Although what seemed supernatural can be explained from a scientific point of view.
Height
Trovants, in Romanian – trovanţii, are sandy nodules, in the center of which there is a core, the so-called seed. Hundreds of millions of years ago, this area was covered with water, and streams flowed from the mountains, bringing with them small grains of sand. In the depths of the earth, water and sand created cement rocks with a porous structure, so the composition of Romanian boulders is dominated by cementing clay-lime material. The stones gradually grew in concentric layers from the center to the periphery due to the layering of sandstone on the central formation, which could be an ammonite shell or an ancient shark tooth. A similar process occurs when a pearl is formed.
According to modern nomenclature approved by the International Mineralogical Association, pearls, which are formed in the shells of some mollusks, are not minerals, but are valued no less than precious rocks.
“Young” trovants weigh several grams and over hundreds of millions of years turn into multi-ton blocks with a diameter of up to 10 m. The growth rate is low. In addition, they slow down and speed up, depending on environmental conditions. Moreover, the smaller the stone, the faster it increases in size. During seismic activity, weathering and erosion of the rocks in which they are located, trovants appear on the surface.
After precipitation falls, they visually grow. The upper looser layers absorb rain moisture. Due to the increased content of mineral salts that interact with water, a swelling reaction occurs inside and it turns out that the miracle stones actually grow.
Breath
By “breathing” we mean that the trovant is capable of changing in diameter throughout the day. At night it becomes larger, as if inhaling, and during the day it gradually becomes smaller, exhaling. "Breathing" is also explained by natural changes in humidity. At night it becomes cooler and moisture condenses on the surface of the boulder, which is absorbed by loose layers. During the day, under the influence of sunlight and wind, it evaporates and the trovant decreases.
Reproduction
In addition, the Trovants gave an answer to another interesting question: do stones reproduce? The fact is that bulges can form on the surface of the boulder, especially after heavy rains. As it turned out, a new seed center is activated under the surface, around which layers grow. The rounded formations quickly increase in size, and the trovants themselves begin to resemble giant ginger roots. Over time, they grow so much that, under the force of gravity, the formations simply fall away from the parent boulder. But there is also an explanation for this phenomenon. Simply due to its heterogeneous composition and with an abundance of moisture, sandstone is capable of redistribution within the nodule.
Legends
Despite all the scientific arguments, trovants attract fans of mystical secrets from all over the world. In traditions and legends, local people speak of the “animation” of the Trovantes. It is believed that boulders and their fragments should never be moved from their native places. Although the bravest Romanians roll them into their yards and place them as “watchmen” at the gates or use them for decorative purposes, and some even use them as grave monuments. Although trovants still do not have a soul, according to legend they can contain the soul of an innocently murdered person.
Museum
In 2005, in the Romanian outback, in the area of sand quarries near the village of Costesti, on an area of 1.1 hectares, the Valcin authorities, with the money of geology students, opened the Trovant Museum-Reserve. A large concentration of blocks of unusual shape, different in color and impressive in size is concentrated here. Anyone can get acquainted with the exhibition, and in bad weather even watch the growth of unusual stones.
Spheroids in the world
Massive spherical nodules of a nature similar to trovants are found in the sands of the beaches of New Zealand, in Kazakhstan on the Mangyshlak Peninsula, on the shores of the Pacific Ocean in California (USA), in the Valley of the Moon in Argentina, off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, as well as in Brazil and Mexico , Egypt, Israel, China and other countries.
A fragment of a strata sandstone concretion, formed by the accretion of more than 50 spherical mineral formations, called the “Maiden Stone” is located in one of the most popular recreation areas in Moscow - Kolomenskoye Park. The pagans used it as an altar on which they made sacrifices to the gods.
Russian "trovants"
Mineral spheroids are also found in Russia. Round blocks come out of the ground in the vicinity of the village of Andreevka, Oryol region, and in the village of Boguchanka in the north of the Irkutsk region. In the section of a coal mine there are stone spheres that seem to be made of metal. Spherical boulders were found near the village. Wet Olkhovka in the Volgograd region, in the Izhma river (Komi Republic), as well as on the islands of the Franz Josef Land archipelago.
Of course, our “trovants” do not have such impressive sizes as Romanian boulders. In addition, they contain quartz-chalcedony materials, so they do not react to weather changes and do not reproduce.
4.4 / 5 ( 11 votes)
In the center and south of Romania, far from cities, there are amazing stones. Local residents even came up with a special name for them - trovants. These stones can not only grow, but also... multiply.
In most cases, these stones have a round or streamlined shape and do not have sharp chips. In appearance, they are not much different from any other boulders, of which there are many in these places. But after the rain, something incredible begins to happen to the trovants: they, like mushrooms, begin to grow and increase in size. Each trovant, weighing just a few grams, can grow over time and weigh more than a ton. Young stones grow faster, but with age, the growth of trovante slows down.
The growing stones consist mostly of sandstone. Their internal structure is also very unusual: if you cut a stone in half, then on the cut, like a cut tree, you can see several age rings, concentrated around a small solid core.
Despite the uniqueness of trovants, geologists are in no hurry to classify them as phenomena inexplicable to science. According to scientists, although the growing stones are unusual, their nature can be explained. Geologists say that trovants are the result of a long process of sand cementation that took place over millions of years in the bowels of the earth. Such stones appeared on the surface during strong seismic activity.
Scientists have also found an explanation for the growth of trovants: stones increase in size due to the high content of various mineral salts located under their shell. When the surface gets wet, these chemical compounds begin to expand and put pressure on the sand, causing the stone to “grow.”
Reproduction by budding
Nevertheless, the Trovants have one feature that geologists are unable to explain. Living stones, in addition to growing, are also capable of reproducing. It happens like this: after the surface of the stone gets wet, a small bulge appears on it. Over time, it grows, and when the weight of the new stone becomes large enough, it breaks off from the mother one.
The structure of new trovants is the same as that of other, older stones. There is also a core inside, which is the main mystery for scientists. If the growth of a stone can somehow be explained from a scientific point of view, then the process of dividing the stone core defies any logic. In general, the process of reproduction of trovants resembles budding, which is why some experts have seriously thought about the question of whether they are a hitherto unknown inorganic form of life.
Local residents have known about the unusual properties of trovants for hundreds of years, but do not pay much attention to them. In the past, growing stones were used as building materials. Trovants can often be found in Romanian cemeteries - large stones are installed as tombstones due to their unusual appearance.
Some Trovants have another fantastic ability. Like the famous crawling rocks from California's Death Valley Nature Reserve, they sometimes move from place to place.
Open-air museum
Today the trovants are one of those attractions in Central Romania that tourists from all over the world come to see. In turn, resourceful Romanians make souvenirs and decorations from small trovants, and therefore each guest has the opportunity to bring with them a piece of the stone miracle from their trip. Many owners of souvenir stones claim that commemorative items made from trovants, when wet, begin to grow, and they sometimes move around the house without permission, which produces a rather eerie impression.
The largest accumulation of growing stones was recorded in the Romanian county (region) of Valcea. On its territory there are trovants of all shapes, sizes and colors. Due to the great interest of tourists, in 2006, the only open-air museum of trovantes in the village of Costesti was created by the Valcin authorities. Its area is 1.1 hectares. The most unusual-looking growing stones from all over the area are collected on the territory of the museum. For a small fee, those interested can view the exhibition and purchase small samples as souvenirs.
As you know, everything in our world has consciousness, even air and stones. Let's look at 3 examples of minerals:
Trovants - the living stones of Romania...
In the center and south of Romania, far from cities, there are amazing stones. Local residents even came up with a special name for them - trovants. These stones can not only grow, but also... multiply.
In most cases, these stones have a round or streamlined shape and do not have sharp chips. In appearance, they are not much different from any other boulders, of which there are many in these places. But after the rain, something incredible begins to happen to the trovants: they, like mushrooms, begin to grow and increase in size.
Each trovant, weighing just a few grams, can grow over time and weigh more than a ton. Young stones grow faster, but with age, the growth of trovante slows down.
The growing stones consist mostly of sandstone. Their internal structure is also very unusual: if you cut a stone in half, then on the cut, like a cut tree, you can see several age rings, concentrated around a small solid core.
Despite the uniqueness of trovants, geologists are in no hurry to classify them as phenomena inexplicable to science. According to scientists, although the growing stones are unusual, their nature can be explained. Geologists say that trovants are the result of a long process of sand cementation that took place over millions of years in the bowels of the earth. Such stones appeared on the surface during strong seismic activity.
Scientists have also found an explanation for the growth of trovants: stones increase in size due to the high content of various mineral salts located under their shell. When the surface gets wet, these chemical compounds begin to expand and put pressure on the sand, causing the stone to “grow.”
Reproduction by budding
Nevertheless, the Trovants have one feature that geologists are unable to explain. Living stones, in addition to growing, are also capable of reproducing. It happens like this: after the surface of the stone gets wet, a small bulge appears on it. Over time, it grows, and when the weight of the new stone becomes large enough, it breaks off from the mother one.
The structure of new trovants is the same as that of other, older stones. There is also a core inside, which is the main mystery for scientists. If the growth of a stone can somehow be explained from a scientific point of view, then the process of dividing the stone core defies any logic. In general, the process of reproduction of trovants resembles budding, which is why some experts have seriously thought about the question of whether they are a hitherto unknown inorganic form of life.
Local residents have known about the unusual properties of trovants for hundreds of years, but do not pay much attention to them. In the past, growing stones were used as building materials. Trovants can often be found in Romanian cemeteries - large stones are installed as tombstones due to their unusual appearance.
Some Trovants have another fantastic ability. Like the famous crawling rocks from California's Death Valley Nature Reserve, they sometimes move from place to place.
Open-air museum
Today the trovants are one of those attractions in Central Romania that tourists from all over the world come to see. In turn, resourceful Romanians make souvenirs and decorations from small trovants, and therefore each guest has the opportunity to bring with them a piece of the stone miracle from their trip. Many owners of souvenir stones claim that commemorative items made from trovants, when wet, begin to grow, and they sometimes move around the house without permission, which produces a rather eerie impression.
The largest accumulation of growing stones was recorded in the Romanian county (region) of Valcea. On its territory there are trovants of all shapes, sizes and colors. Due to the great interest of tourists, in 2006, the only open-air museum of trovantes in the village of Costesti was created by the Valcin authorities. Its area is 1.1 hectares. The most unusual-looking growing stones from all over the area are collected on the territory of the museum. For a small fee, those interested can view the exhibition and purchase small samples as souvenirs.
Russian relatives
Stones similar to Romanian trovants are found in other countries of the world. We have something similar in Russia. For several years now, in the Kolpnyansky district of the Oryol region in the village of Andreevka and its environs, round blocks of stone have been appearing from underground, as if by magic, on the surface. They can be seen in fields, vegetable gardens, near houses and in personal plots.
Oryol growing stones look like sticky sand, but their fragility is deceptive. In fact, these stones are very strong, and in order to break off even a small fragment from them, great effort must be made.
The sizes of the stones vary greatly. In the vicinity of Andreevka, both small growing stones and huge blocks several meters long, reminiscent of building slabs, are found.
Both geologists and local historians are trying to understand the nature of this phenomenon. Growing stones are very popular among local residents. They are endowed with mystical properties; it is believed that the boulders growing from the ground are rich in the life-giving power of mother earth. Some even transported several stones and decorated the path to the local holy springs with them. Others build decorative rock gardens from stones in their garden plots and use them as finishing materials for houses.
The unusual nature of the Trovantes sometimes leads to the emergence of very bold and, at first glance, implausible opinions and hypotheses, the authenticity of which official science is in no hurry to recognize. A number of researchers, as already mentioned, believe that trovants are representatives of an inorganic form of life. The principle of their existence and structure have nothing in common with the same characteristics of already studied species of flora and fauna. At the same time, growing stones may turn out to be both the indigenous inhabitants of our planet, who have quietly existed side by side with humans for millennia, and representatives of unearthly life forms that fell to earth with meteorites or brought by aliens.
It is quite possible that people are looking for other forms of life in the wrong places; real aliens have been among us for a long time, and we simply do not notice them.
Mikhail KUZMIN
“Secrets of the 20th century” May 2012
Crawling stones of Death Valley
Well, here’s another well-known riddle, or maybe not a riddle, but there’s already enough fog and mystery :-) Let’s figure it out...
Sailing stones, also called sliding or crawling stones, are a geological phenomenon discovered on the Racetrack Playa dry lake in Death Valley in the United States. The stones move slowly along the clayey bottom of the lake, as evidenced by the long tracks left behind them. The stones move independently without the help of living creatures, but no one has ever seen or recorded the movement on camera. The stones move only once every two or three years, and most of the traces remain for 3-4 years. Rocks with a ribbed bottom surface leave straighter marks, while rocks on the flat side wander from side to side. Sometimes stones turn over, which affects the size of their footprint.
Until the beginning of the 20th century, the phenomenon was explained by supernatural forces, then during the formation of electromagnetism, an assumption arose about the influence of magnetic fields, which, in general, did not explain anything.
In 1948, geologists Jim McAlister and Allen Agnew mapped the location of the stones and noted their tracks. A little later, employees of the US National Park Service compiled a detailed description of the place and Life magazine published photographs from Racetrack Playa, after which speculation began about what makes the stones move. Most hypotheses agreed that wind, when the surface of the lake bottom was wet, at least partly explained the phenomenon.
In 1955, geologist George Stanley of the University of Michigan published a paper arguing that the rocks were too heavy for local winds to move. He and his colleague proposed a theory according to which, during the seasonal flooding of a dry lake, an ice crust forms on the water, facilitating the movement of stones.
In May 1972, Robert Sharp (Caltech) and Dwight Carey (UCLA) began a program to monitor the movement of stones. Thirty stones with relatively recent tracks were marked and their locations were marked with pegs. Over the 7 years during which the position of the stones was recorded, scientists created a model according to which, during the rainy season, water accumulates in the southern part of the lake, which is spread by the wind along the bottom of the dry lake, wetting its surface. As a result, the hard clay soil becomes very wet and the coefficient of friction sharply decreases, which allows the wind to move even one of the largest stones (it was called Karen), which weighed about 350 kilograms.
Hypotheses for ice-assisted movement were also tested. Water spreading under the influence of wind can become covered with an ice crust at night, and stones located in the path of the water will be frozen into a layer of ice. The ice around the stone could increase the cross-section of interaction with the wind and help move the stones along the water flows. As an experiment, a pen with a diameter of 1.7 m was created around a stone 7.5 cm wide and weighing 0.5 kg.
The distance between the fence supports varied from 64 to 76 cm. If a layer of ice formed around the stones, then when moving it could catch on the fence support and slow down the movement or change the trajectory, which would be reflected in the mark of the stone. However, no such effects were observed - in the first winter, the stone passed next to the fence support, moving beyond the fenced area 8.5 m in the direction of the northwest. The next time, 2 heavier stones were placed inside the pen - one of them, after five years, moved in the same direction as the first, but its companion did not budge during the period of research. This fact indicated that if the ice crust has an effect on the movement of stones, then it should be small.
Ten of the marked stones moved in the first winter of research, with stone A (called Mary Ann) crawling 64.5 m. It was noted that many stones also moved in the next two winter periods, and the stones stood still in summer and other winters. At the end of the research (after 7 years), only two out of 30 observed stones did not change their location. The size of the smallest stone (Nancy) was 6.5 cm in diameter, and this stone moved a maximum total distance of 262 m and a maximum distance in one winter of 201 m. The most massive stone, the movement of which was recorded, weighed 36 kg.
In 1993, Paula Messina (California State University, San Jose) defended her dissertation on the topic of moving stones, which showed that, in general, the stones did not move in parallel. According to the researcher, this confirms that ice does not contribute to movement in any way. After studying the changes in the coordinates of 162 stones (which were carried out using GPS), it was determined that the movement of the boulders was not affected by either their size or their shape. It turned out that the nature of the movement is largely determined by the position of the boulder on Racetrack Playa. According to the created model, the wind over the lake behaves in a very complex way, even forming a vortex in the center of the lake.
In 1995, a team led by Professor John Reid noted that the tracks from the winter of 1992-93 were highly similar to those from the late 1980s. It was shown that at least some of the stones moved with currents of ice-covered water, and the width of the ice crust was about 800 m, as evidenced by characteristic tracks scratched by a thin layer of ice. It was also determined that the boundary layer, in which the wind slows down due to contact with the ground, on such surfaces can be as small as 5 cm, which means that even very low stones can be affected by winds (which can reach 145 km/h in winter).
There is no theory yet that would explain why nearby stones can move in different directions when others stand still. It is also not clear why the stones are “scattered” across the entire bottom of the lake, whereas regular winds would move them to one of the edges of the lake.
In some places on our planet, including Russia, huge stones and boulders have long been found, which were suddenly removed from their “homes” and began to move independently.
This is the legendary Sin-stone near Pereslavl-Zalessky, revered from paganism to the present day. Legend has it that at the end of the 17th century, buried deep and even crushed by an earthen mound, the Blue Stone either serenely slept for six months, then suddenly shot out like a cannonball. It was drowned in Lake Pleshcheyevo, but after half a century it returned to the hillock in the most incredible way, where it remains today, attracting pilgrims and tourists.
In Tibet, the monks of the ancient Northern Monastery have been compiling a biography of the so-called Buddha Stone for a millennium and a half. According to legend, his palms were imprinted on the boulder. This shrine weighs 1100 kilograms. At the same time, independently, without anyone’s help, he climbs a mountain 2565 meters high and descends from it along a spiral trajectory. Each ascent and descent fit exactly into 16 years.
As for other similar mysteries, continues Alexey Makhinov, abroad, in California, for example, entire institutions are preoccupied with them. But we haven't figured it out yet. They only assume that it is a combination of natural conditions. It is possible that the stones simply move with the wind.
In some places, a natural mechanism may also turn on. For example, powerful sea tides. Like in the Tugur Bay of the Sea of Okhotsk. There, daily sea level fluctuations reach 9 meters. Imagine the might! I myself saw the groove from the stone. It was quite large - more than a meter high. The sea dragged the boulder along for one and a half kilometers. Then it retreated, but he remained.
At the beginning of this year, world science was enriched by one extravagant theory. According to the research of French biologists Arnold Reshard and Pierre Escolier, stones are living beings with an ultra-slow life process. They breathe (sensitive instruments recorded a weak but regular pulsation of the samples) and move. And everything is extremely leisurely: one breath in two weeks, one millimeter in several days. In addition, scientists say, stones change structurally, that is, they have age - they can be old and young.
Another explanation movement of stones may consist, according to scientists, in daily temperature fluctuations. Any body (including the stones being studied) expands when heated - you should remember this from your school physics course. It is a scientifically established fact that in the summer months the walls of houses illuminated by the sun increase (as if tilted) to the south, which is one of the reasons for the destruction of buildings.
So the moving stones supposedly heat up during the day and expand to the south, and with the onset of coolness at night they contract, and faster on the north side, where they were less heated. That is, they slowly creep towards the south. And from under the ground the stones supposedly move upward towards the sun and the warm surface. However, this theory was quickly recognized as untenable - after all, following it, absolutely all the stones on earth should persistently crawl in one direction year after year, but very slowly. But for some reason this doesn’t happen.
Scientists also recalled the presence of the specific gravity of stones and Archimedean forces, which can force boulders to float and move slowly in unsteady or loose soils. The studies also mentioned such factors as changes in gravitational fields, geomagnetic properties of the planet, vibrations, subsidence and subsidence of the soil... However, it has not yet been possible to clearly and clearly explain what exactly is the matter.
And more recently, to researchers phenomenon of moving stones Astronomers also joined in. The fact is that such objects were discovered even in space! Or rather, on an asteroid discovered several years ago Eros, where there were scatterings of boulders that were absolutely not typical for the soil of an asteroid, which, moreover, constantly change their location. They crawl too, that is.
So far, this fact is vaguely explained by some unusually mobile soils of a celestial body with very little gravity. Maybe the earth's wandering stones are aliens from outer space (for example, meteorites)? In a word, despite the abundance of facts and many theories, it remains to state a dry fact: to date, the mystery of the wandering stones has not been solved. The currently existing versions cannot yet satisfy serious scientists. The search for clues to the manifestation of life in seemingly lifeless objects continues.
Milky Way over Death Valley
How rocks grow
We have already talked a lot about the fact that stones have their own life history, although it is very different from the history of living beings. The life and history of a stone is very long: it is sometimes measured not in thousands, but in millions and even hundreds of millions of years, and therefore it is very difficult for us to notice the changes that accumulate in the stone over thousands of years. A cobblestone pavement and a stone among arable fields seem constant to us only because we cannot notice how gradually, under the influence of the sun and rain, the hooves of horses and the smallest organisms invisible to the eye, both a cobblestone pavement and a boulder on arable land turn into something new.
If we could change the speed of time and if we could, like in cinema, rapidly show the history of the Earth over millions of years, then in a few hours we would see how mountains crawl out of the depths of the oceans and how they again turn into lowlands; how a mineral formed from molten masses very quickly crumbles and turns into clay; how in a second billions of animals accumulate enormous layers of limestone, and a person in a split second destroys entire mountains of ores, turning them into sheet iron and rails, into copper wire and cars. In this mad rush, everything would change and transform with lightning speed. Before our eyes, the stone would grow, be destroyed and replaced by another, and, as in the life of living matter, all this would be governed by its own special laws, which mineralogy is designed to study.
A section through the Earth's crust showing individual zones of the Earth.
We will begin the study of the mineral life of the Earth from depths inaccessible to exploration - from the “magma” zone, where the temperature is slightly above 1500 ° C and where the pressure reaches tens of thousands of atmospheres.
Magma is a complex mutual solution-melt of a huge amount of substances. While it boils in inaccessible depths, saturated with water vapor and volatile gases, its own internal work is going on, and individual chemical elements combine into ready-made (but still liquid) minerals. But then the temperature drops - either under the influence of general cooling, or because the magma moves to colder and higher zones - and the magma begins to solidify and release individual substances. Some compounds turn into a solid state earlier than others; they crystallize and float or fall to the bottom of the still liquid mass. Little by little, the forces of crystallization attract more and more new ones to the solid particles that have arisen; the solid material comes together as it separates from the liquid magma.
Magma turns into a mixture of crystals - into that mineral mass that we call crystalline rock. Light granites and syenites, dark, heavy basalts are solidified waves and splashes of the once molten ocean. The science of petrography gives them hundreds of different names, trying to find in their structure and chemical composition the imprint of their past in the unknown depths of the Earth.
A section through a massif of granite, with branches of granite veins and the release of various metals and gases.
The composition of solid rock is far from the same as the composition of the molten source itself. A huge amount of volatile compounds permeates its molten mixture, is released in powerful jets, and permeates its cover; and its hearth smokes and smokes for a long time until the mixture completely hardens and turns into solid rock. Only an insignificant part of these gases remains inside the solidified mass, the other part rises to the earth's surface in the form of gas jets.
Not all of these volatile compounds have time to reach the earth's surface. A huge part of them is still deposited in the depths, water vapor condenses; Hot springs flow through cracks and veins to the surface of the Earth, slowly cooling and gradually releasing mineral after mineral from the solutions. Some of the gases saturate the waters and burst out to the surface of the Earth in the form of springs or geysers, while others soon find other paths and form solid compounds.
A void in rock formed when some rocks cool.
Hot springs - juvenile, young waters, in the words of the famous Viennese geologist Suess - are not the paths that connect the life of magmas with the life of the earth's surface. The number of hot springs is very large. In the United States of America alone there are at least ten thousand known, and in Czechoslovakia over a thousand, among which there are many healing ones, for example the famous hot spring in Karlovy Vary. From them, real water sources are formed, which bring with them substances alien to the surface from the depths, and minerals and sulfur compounds of heavy metals begin to precipitate along the walls of cracks, along the smallest cracks of rocks. This is how ore deposits arise from volatile compounds of deep magmas, and those accumulations of minerals that man so greedily seeks are born. On the surface of the Earth, all this mass of water, volatile compounds, gas vapors, solutions that were not retained along the way from the depths and did not settle in the form of various minerals - all this mass flows into the atmosphere and into the ocean, gradually, over many geological periods , bringing them to the modern state.
Thus, little by little, our air and our oceans were created with their current composition and properties - as a result of the entire long history of the Earth.
We're on the surface.
Above us is an ocean of atmosphere - a complex mixture of vapors, gases, earth and cosmic dust. Further than three kilometers from the earth's surface, the influence of the Earth's transformations is almost completely unaffected. There, beyond the noctilucent clouds, zones richer in hydrogen begin, and at the very border accessible to our research, lines of helium gas sparkle in the spectra of the northern lights. In the lower layers of the atmosphere, particles ejected by volcanoes rush around, dust swirls, raised by winds and desert storms - here a special world of chemical life opens up for us.
Before us are ponds and lakes, swamps and tundras with their gradual accumulation of rotting organic matter. In the mud and silt covering their bottom, their own processes take place: iron is slowly drawn into legume ores, complex decomposition of sulfur organic compounds occurs, forming concretions of iron pyrites, and there is not enough oxygen. Microscopic life continuously glows, causing and collecting more and more new products. In sea basins, in the expanse of ocean waters, these processes are even greater...
But let's move on to solid ground. Here is the kingdom of the mighty agents of the earth's surface - carbonic acid, oxygen and water. Gradually and steadily, grains of quartz sand accumulate here, carbonic acid takes possession of metals (calcium and magnesium), silicon compounds of the depths are destroyed and turned into clay. Wind and sun, water and frost help this destruction, annually carrying up to fifty tons of matter from every square kilometer of the earth.
Beneath the cover of the soil, a world of destruction stretches deep, and up to five hundred meters deep, processes of change take place, weakening in their strength and being replaced below by a new world of stone formation.
This is how we picture the inorganic life of the earth’s surface. There is intense chemical activity going on all around us. Everywhere old bodies are processed into new ones, sediments are deposited on sediments, minerals accumulate; the destroyed and weathered mineral is replaced by another, and new and new layers are imperceptibly laid on the free surface. The bottom of the ocean, the muddy masses of swamps or rocky river beds, the sandy seas of the desert - everything must disappear either in streams of flowing water, or in gusts of wind, or become part of the depths, covered with a new layer of stone. Thus, gradually, the products of the destruction of the Earth, escaping from the power of those on the surface and being covered with new sediments, pass into the conditions of the depths that are alien to them. And in the depths, rocks are resurrected in a completely new form. There they come into contact with a molten ocean of magma, which penetrates them, either dissolving or crystallizing minerals again.
Thus, the surface sediments again come into contact with the magma of the depths, and a particle of each substance makes its long journey many times in perpetual motion.
Stones live and change, outlive and turn into new stones again.
In the center and south of Romania, far from cities, there are amazing stones. Local residents even came up with a special name for them - trovants. These stones can not only grow and move, but also multiply.
In most cases, these stones have a round or streamlined shape and do not have sharp chips. In appearance, they are not much different from any other boulders, of which there are many in these places. But after the rain, something incredible begins to happen to the trovants: they, like mushrooms, begin to grow and increase in size.
Each trovant, weighing just a few grams, can grow over time and weigh more than a ton. Young stones grow faster, but with age, the growth of trovante slows down.
The growing stones consist mostly of sandstone. Their internal structure is also very unusual: if you cut a stone in half, then on the cut, like a cut tree, you can see several age rings, concentrated around a small solid core.
Despite the uniqueness of trovants, geologists are in no hurry to classify them as phenomena inexplicable to science. According to scientists, although the growing stones are unusual, their nature can be explained. Geologists say that trovants are the result of a long process of sand cementation that took place over millions of years in the bowels of the earth. Such stones appeared on the surface during strong seismic activity.
Scientists have also found an explanation for the growth of trovants: stones increase in size due to the high content of various mineral salts located under their shell. When the surface gets wet, these chemical compounds begin to expand and put pressure on the sand, causing the stone to “grow.”
Reproduction by budding.
Nevertheless, the Trovants have one feature that geologists are unable to explain. Living stones, in addition to growing, are also capable of reproducing. It happens like this: after the surface of the stone gets wet, a small bulge appears on it. Over time, it grows, and when the weight of the new stone becomes large enough, it breaks off from the mother one.
The structure of new trovants is the same as that of other, older stones. There is also a core inside, which is the main mystery for scientists. If the growth of a stone can somehow be explained from a scientific point of view, then the process of dividing the stone core defies any logic. In general, the process of reproduction of trovants resembles budding, which is why some experts have seriously thought about the question of whether they are a hitherto unknown inorganic form of life.
Local residents have known about the unusual properties of trovants for hundreds of years, but do not pay much attention to them. In the past, growing stones were used as building materials. Trovants can often be found in Romanian cemeteries - large stones are installed as tombstones due to their unusual appearance.
Ability to move.
Some Trovants have another fantastic ability. Like the famous crawling rocks from California's Death Valley Nature Reserve, they sometimes move from place to place.
Cobblestones can move, although very slowly. To measure the average step, the researchers photographed one of the stones at long intervals. In the end it turned out that
Fourteen days later the stone moved 2.5 mm. It would seem minuscule! But this fact explains the huge number of walking stones known throughout the world.
Academic science was extremely skeptical about the experimenters’ statement, without, however, denying the “possibility of independent movement.” The strange movement is explained by the cooling or, conversely, heating of the soil, which, with some periodicity, either “sucks in” or, on the contrary, “pushes” stones out of itself, due to which they can theoretically move. The pulsation of stones due to ion exchange with air is also possible, as well as the absorption of water and carbon dioxide by the stone.
Any number of stones, anywhere, that “adore” movement. On the territory of Kazakhstan, not far from Semipalatinsk, there is a vast stretch of forest-steppe, which has long been called the Wandering Field. The local round boulders, for some reason, only in the winter months start running in different directions, plowing wavy, ragged furrows.
In 1832, salt merchant Ivan Troitsky had the opportunity to observe the development of the phenomenon. In a letter sent to his brother Kirill in Omsk, he writes: “Stones do not roll. They run and crawl on one side, scattering sheafs of sparks visible even in the sun. The stones plow tolerably without sowing. That’s why nothing grows on the bald patches where they frolic. Gray air envelops them. It’s easier to breathe on the field than around it. At the same time, the soul is oppressed, melancholy rolls over. I’d rather get in the saddle and get out of there!”
The impressions of the salt merchant Ivan Troitsky are indistinguishable from what Anthony Petrushev, deacon of the Pereslavl Semyonovskaya Church, experienced at the end of the 17th century, unsuccessfully trying to calm down the Blue Stone, which haunted the Orthodox people because, buried deep, and even crushed by an earthen mound, it then serenely slept for six months, then suddenly shot out of the mound like a cannonball.
In winter, when they were being transported on a sleigh across Lake Pleshcheyevo, a stone fell off the sleigh, became red-hot, melted the ice, and sank to the bottom. Fishermen in clear weather saw a stone underwater. Slowly but surely he moved towards the shore. After 50 years, he returned to his original place - a windswept hillock. The stone no longer played pranks - after all, it was not disturbed.
Its Far Eastern brother, the one-and-a-half ton one, has shown and continues to show aggressiveness, entrenched at the western end of Lake Bolon since the creation of the world. “What does this magician do?” admires Russian geologist Ya.A. Skrypnik. - Either he lies motionless, then he begins to jump, then he slowly drags along the path, then he makes his way through the reeds. Resembling an ancient mossy turtle, it invites you to think - isn’t it reasonable?”
Chinese geophysicists, taking as a working hypothesis that the atypical behavior of boulders and cobblestones is obviously associated with emissions of strong gravitational and anti-gravitational energies from geopathogenic faults, they, armed with all-hearing and all-seeing equipment, went to Tibet, where they set up camp near the ancient Northern Monastery, monks whose biography of the so-called Buddha Stone has been compiled for a millennium and a half. According to legend, his palms were imprinted on the stone. This shrine weighs 1100 kilograms. It climbs a mountain 2565 meters high and descends from it along a spiral trajectory, drawing circles at the top and bottom points. Each ascent and descent exactly fits into 16 years. Circling around the mountain and at the top takes half a century.
Chinese scientists using laser rangefinders, acoustic, seismic sensors, and night vision devices have established that it is impossible to visually notice the movement of the boulder. However, the maximum speed it reaches reaches a third of a kilometer per hour. The creeping stone is enveloped in a faint glow. Low-pitched sounds are also heard, something like the inarticulate muttering of an old man.
The unusual nature of the Trovantes sometimes leads to the emergence of very bold and, at first glance, implausible opinions and hypotheses, the authenticity of which official science is in no hurry to recognize. A number of researchers, as already mentioned, believe that trovants are representatives of an inorganic form of life. The principle of their existence and structure have nothing in common with the same characteristics of already studied species of flora and fauna. At the same time, growing stones may turn out to be both the indigenous inhabitants of our planet, who have quietly existed side by side with humans for millennia, and representatives of unearthly life forms that fell to earth with meteorites or brought by aliens.
It is quite possible that people are looking for other forms of life in the wrong places; real aliens have been among us for a long time, and we simply do not notice them.