Mysterious Giant Sphere Unearthed in Forest Divides Opinion | Hacker News Reader

Mysterious Giant Sphere Unearthed in Forest Divides Opinion

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61 pointsjacobr38 comments

Funny, yeah they look like normal concretions to my eye.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concretion#Cannonball_concreti...

I grew up near cannonball river, things like this are all over. High iron content too because of water. I even have a version that looks like a cube but its just shale inside, paramagnetic too but thats due to water processes according to a geologist I talked to.

I'm not convinced it was made by people until you crack it open.

Exactly - scroll down to the bottom on this page and you'll see concretions that look almost like the one in this article: https://www.dmr.nd.gov/ndgs/ndnotes/concretions/concretions....

Image here: https://www.dmr.nd.gov/ndgs/ndnotes/concretions/images/canno...

There's a beach near where I live that's littered with thousands of perfectly round, hand-sized stone discs, presumably created by some special wave and/or ancient glacial movement there. I'm pretty sure someone thinks it was aliens, though.

That Wikipedia page lists Zavidovići as a place where these things are found - which is the location in Bosnia described in the article.

Not a new addition either, the overall Bosnia reference has been there since the article was expanded from stub in 2006 and Zavidovici itself has been listed since May 2007.

Mandy Edwards belongs to the School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences of the University of Manchester, and she claims..."The [iron] sphere could have actually been produced by a natural occurrence known as concretion, which is caused by the “precipitation of natural mineral cement within the spaces between sediment grains”."

It's in Bosnia. Alternatively, the article quotes Dr Sam Osmangich, a proponent of the theory that an "ancient civilisation that was once present here, dating back more than 1,500 years."

That would be true if concretion could form metal objects but it can't.

They can form Iron Oxide, and Iron Sulfide spheres but they are usually very small like these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klerksdorp_sphere

It's not a metal object, it's a stone sphere with a "high" (unspecified) level of iron content.

You are correct, I've seen this linked before as some silly "Iron Sphere". Could be concretion, would be still very strange indeed, The smaller "iron spheres" were usually found in mines where there was already a high concentration of iron content that could be used to form iron minerals, not sure where did the iron came from to form this one.

The world is a very large place with lots of room for strange things to happen in it.

> Dr Sam Osmangich, a proponent of the theory that an "ancient civilisation that was once present here, dating back more than 1,500 years."

Wait, what? It's not like Bosnia is some unknown place - 1500 years ago would put you at the tail end of the Western Roman Empire, with the Byzantines still in full swing. There's a very well attested historical record of who was living there then. If there was some ancient Balkan civilization obsessed with creating massive iron balls, we'd know about it. Hell, it'd probably have been a tourist attraction.

That's not a rock! That's a Terrie[1]!!

... or possibly a Fermie?

I'd not linger around for too long in any case. They might be feeling sporty.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Beneath_the_Ground!

If a nearly pure wad of space iron became molten on entering ancient earth's atmosphere and buried itself in relatively soft crust/clay, some sort of planetary "shot tower"[1] effect is out of the question? (and/or why no mention of "meteor"?)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shot_tower

Or it could have been a ball of molten iron (from a meteor) that splashed into water, turned into sphere, and eventually found its way to the surface.

A ball of iron that size won't solidify into a sphere the sphere thing only works when the surface tension force is the big actor when something is that massive it's not longer the case.

This is why if you drip water from a bucket it would form drops but if you pour it all at once it wouldn't form one big drop.

Were talking about different velocities a shot tower works because the molten lead solidifies in the air, they travel at 50-100 m/s and land in water.

An Iron rod that falls from space will melt when hitting the ground just from the impact force regardless if it somehow managed to melt and solidify during reentry.

That much mass wouldn't bury itself, it would blow itself apart and leave a huge crater. It would be coming in at horrendous velocity, and the outer layers would flash to plasma on impact I think.

They look similar to the Moeraki Boulders in New Zealand, also concretions which these might be too according to the article.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moeraki_Boulders

Has nobody thought to ask the Bosnian guy _why_ this ancient (which it isn't either) civilization would create these balls? Every archaeologist I have ever met, and I've met a few, would tell you what it is based upon what it would be used for. Not the other way around. If he's just going to blindly speculate then it might just as well be a Minotaurus Humungus's testicle.

"The sphere could have actually been produced by a natural occurrence known as concretion"

'Concretion: The Enigmatic Stone Spheres of Franz Josef Land'

http://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/2015/07/stone-spheres-concre...

Some people hear hoofsteps and absolutely know it's a zebra

There is no division. Unless you include flat earthers dividing opinion on the earth is round.

It natural. Probably a concretion.

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