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Klerksdorp Spheres
Tiny pyrophyllite spheres from 3 billion years agoOver the last few decades since they were first discovered, the Klerksdorp Spheres have caused quite an uproar, brining science and the science-fiction conjecture to a head.
By all scientific accounts, the rounded objects with even latitudinal grooves are 3 billion-year-old rocks that were naturally formed by carbonate concretions. Over the process of their development the tiny pyrophyllite spheres, which range in size from .5-10 cm, were created when minerals formed in the space between sediments. Weathering of these specimen left them as tiny balls, with evenly spaced lines circumscribing them.
Of course, this answer does not exactly satisfy those who believe the spheres are too perfect to have been created naturally, and since their first discovery in South African mines, they have been linked to intelligent beings from a different place or time.
Most doubt about the natural origin of the spheres originated with a story, that remains unverified today. According to some accounts, a man brought one of the spheres to NASA after noting the perfect balance of the sphere on a table. After NASA tested it, they told the man that the sphere could have only been made in zero-gravity because its balance was too perfect to have been created naturally.
With that legend in place, the pseudo-scientists moved in, making claims that intelligent beings roamed the earth 3 billion years ago, and that these beings made the spheres for religious or military purposes. Some even claim the spheres were an ancient form of information technology made by people millions of years before the first men and women walked the earth.
As with other out-of-place artifacts, some also suggested that the spheres were made by extraterrestrials. Despite these ongoing claims, the scientific world agrees that the spheres are simply a natural wonder of the world.
Read more about Klerksdorp Spheres on Atlas Obscura...
Category: Geological Oddities, Hoaxes and Pseudoscience
Location: Ottosdal, South Africa
Edited by: atimian
