Photo by [clarita] morgueFile
But I’ve recently read of a subject that I found particularly intriguing and wanted to share with my readers.
I realize we’ve had a few discussions about things falling from the sky down to the Earth, but this one deserves as much attention I believe.
35 Million Years Ago the Stone Showers Began
We’re not going to discuss the rain you are probably thinking of. This rain consisted of glassy stones that fell upon the Earth around the southeastern coast of North America and the Caribbean.
But this strange occurrence happened multiple times, again and again over the centuries. Then around 750,000 years ago, the Indian Ocean, Australia and Southeast Asia was victim to over 100 million tons of stone that fired down upon them.
Central Europe, West Africa and the Caucasus Mountains were also riddled with these strange storms of stone falling from high above. But what were these stones and where did they originate?
Scientific Outlook on the Stones
Around the year 1900 science began to take a look at the origin of these strange stone showers. Finding that the stones themselves were scattered and spread out over large areas, and of course after that many years were only found within geological layers within the Earth.
The fact that these layers varied over a period of millions of years, this helped them to determine the extent of time in which this phenomenon has been taking place.
Even though it were a large span of time, all the stones found within these samples were of similar composition and possibly even the same origin.
Many different shapes and sizes of these stones were recovered, some resembled buttons, barbells and other unusual shapes. But the strange thing is that all of the stones appeared to have been formed as molten blobs passing through the Earth’s atmosphere.
These stones were then named tektites by Austrian geologist Franz E. Suess, from the Greek word tektos, meaning “molten.”
Theories of the Stones Origin
Scientists have not discovered much more evidence on tektites. There has literally been decades of study on this subject, but the origin of these stones still remains nothing more than theory.
For many years researchers believed these stones to be particles of molten lunar soil. They believed these particles were splashed upon the Earth due to meteorites that collided with the moon.
Even though that theory sounds pretty reasonable, it was debunked when the Apollo space mission brought back moon samples.
After studying the samples, it was discovered the actual moon samples only contained small amounts of the key ingredients found in these tektites. The key ingredients being silica and iron, which lead to another theory.
Some believe tektites are of an Earthly origin. It’s believed that erupting volcanoes were responsible. But in order for this theory to make sense it would mean the particles in the eruptions would have to blast off out of our atmosphere.
It is highly unlikely that any volcano would have enough force to send particles though our atmosphere and into space. Not only that, but lava also does not contain the same portions of material found in the tektites.
One more widely accepted theory suggests huge meteorites plowing into the Earth at high speed. The impact is said to of melted surface rock causing showers of red hot particles to rain back down to the surface.
Concluding the Stone Showers
There really isn’t any definitive conclusion that can be drawn by all this, but it is an interesting thought to ponder none the less.
Many researchers continue to target the moon as the source for these stone showers of an unknown origin. Some have turned their research to the contents of the moon’s interior.
Sounds to me like this is just another one of those worldly mysteries that we probably will never know the true answer to. But that’s the best part about the strange and unusual is the conspiracy theories and speculation that it creates. What do you think about these unusual stone showers? Let’s discuss in the comments below.
