Klerksdorp Balls: Strange balls found in a 3-billion-year-old rock

The Klerksdorp globules, found within pyrophyllite deposits mined in South Africa, are bizarre. Looking like little old cricket balls, with seam-like lines around their middle, it’s easy to see why they’re the subject of conspiracy theories involving aliens and forgotten ancient civilizations.

in Essays in the EightiesThey were speculated to be the creation of “a higher civilization, an antediluvian civilization of which we know almost nothing”, while the same museum curator who said this claimed that the spheres rotate on their own while locked in a “shake-free display”.

Pseudo-scientists claimed that the spheres could only be made even though they were in it A rock that is 3 billion years oldwhile pseudoscientists believe they are Guide to aliens.

Allegations about domains have caught attention Geologist Bruce Cairncross in 2006who wrote that he was amused by an article describing them as “mysterious spheres”, and by choosing in one program to have a psychiatrist examine the stones, declaring them to be the remains of an ancient spaceship.

Cairncross offered a rationale for the spheres in the geological formation known as the Dominion Group. The feature is made of conglomerate, with layers of lava deposited on top. After much pressure and heat, the layers of volcanic rock became pyrophyllite, the casing in which the Klerksdorp globules were found.

Spheres are known as concrements: spherical, elliptical, or oblate bodies made of minerals different from the host rock, and are fairly common, with thousands found around the world. It is often found in fine-grained rocks, such as pyrophyllite, because it allows movement of water.

“They are formed by precipitation from an aqueous solution and are composed of minerals that crystallize in the host rock,” Cairncross explained.

The spheres are spherical (or slightly spherical) because they form around a small grain of mineral in a solution containing iron, calcium, and other elements.

“Because the host rock is evenly textured throughout, the growth of the concrete occurs, unrestricted in all directions, as a 360-degree three-dimensional sphere,” Cairncross writes, adding that if the fluid is moving or the surrounding rock is not the same consistency at all directions, the shape can be deformed.

The lines across the spheres are caused by imprints of the host rock, which formed in layers over a long, long period, leaving a layered effect.

Meanwhile, the curator of the Klerksdorp Museum, explained the riddle of why the ball rotated “by itself,” after which the balls are named.

Mr R Marx explained: “A few years ago, I put the ball back to its original position (on a glass shelf) while a journalist was visiting and he tried to make sense of it.” “It is completely normal for it to rotate a little bit because it is round and we have had many earthquakes due to (gold) mining activities.”