Scientists love a good rock establishment – just ask geologist . From the bizarre chap ofAlNaslaato thehoodoosthat hauntBryceCanyon National Park , they ca n’t get enough . But there ’s nothing quite like a good balancing stone . Today , our favourite is Kummakivi .
The giant boulder known locally as the “ strange stone ” can be establish in Ruokolahti in southeastern Finland . As the scale schnauzer in the image above display , it ’s an absolute unit .
What makes the funny placement of the thumping rock’n’roll so interesting is that despite its monumental sizing and gargantuan weightiness , it ’s upstanding as a rock , literally . mass have tried and fail to tumble Kummakivi , and why would you want to?The Strange Stone would become a mere bowlder .
What Earth lacks in giants it makes up for in landscape-transforming glaciers capable of moving enormous objects vast distances. Image credit: Kersti Lindstrom/Shutterstock.com
colossus were once credited with plonking Kummakivi where it stands today , and it ’s fair to say they would be needed . That is , were it not for glaciers .
One explanation as to how the Kummakivi get to be so perfectly balanced inclination on geology and the way that glaciers can shuffle giant objects across huge landscapes , eventually place them to rest on the flat coat . Sometimes , that soil is a peculiar position to land but the position endures because , by chance , it ’s dead balanced . This region of Finland was once get over by a glacier that receded around 8,000 year ago , leaving in its viewing an telling balancing act .
Rocky combos like Kummakivi are get laid as PBRs , or “ precariously balanced rock music ” . They ’re an region of discipline for geologists with splendid examples to be get across the globe . harmonise toAtlas Obscura , PBRs are also have intercourse as “ rearward seismometers ” because their very existence shows that the area is n’t one vulnerable to earthquakes – if it were , those PBRs would ’ve tip long ago .
PBRs sit down alongside hoodoos as varieties of “ fragile geological features ” that would ’ve long been misplace to Earth if they did n’t survive in such stable locating . Mushrooming hoodoos disagree from PBRs in that although they are seemingly off - balance , with their gargantuan heads sitting atop slender bodies , they ’re a singular unit of measurement rather than one thing balanced on top of another .
By demarcation , the levitating halves of Al Naslaa are thought to indicate that the ginormous rocky duo may sit down on a fault line that split the perfectly equate pieces in two as the Earth shifted . instead , it may have been due to the immobilize - thaw issue that broke apart Rock to produce Bryce Canyon ’s hundred of hoodoos ( which you may larn all about onpage 16 of CURIOUS , our detached e - magazine ) .
All of these brilliant creation born of the constituent just go to show that geology is n’t just about rocks – it ’s about interpreting rude and perplexing indicator of our satellite ’s geological account ( and rocks ) .
