Mysterious stone eggs...

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Sat Apr 21 22:09:44 EDT 2007

kevin decker asked if the "Mysterious stone eggs..." from Hunan
Province..China. were "Something like The Eggs from the Osceola
Impact Crater?"

No. They are meter-scale, cannonball concretions. Cannonball
concretions, composed of carbonate-cemented sediments, of their
size have been found in a number of places, including:

1. Rock City, Kansas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_City%2C_Kansas

2. Along the along the Cannonball River within Morton and
Sioux Counties, North Dakota

http://nd.water.usgs.gov/lewisandclark/points/concretions.html
http://nd.water.usgs.gov/lewisandclark/photos2.html
http://meteorites.wustl.edu/id/cannonball.htm

3. In the Frontier Formation in northeast Utah and central
Wyoming.

http://jsedres.sepmonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/73/3/462
http://www.wvup.edu/ecrisp/crisphomepage.htm

4. Along the shores of Hokianga Harbour of Hokianga, North
Island, New Zealand

http://www.hokiangatourism.org.nz/activities/koutuboulders.htm

5. near Mecevici, Ozimici, and Zavidovici in Bosnia-Herzegovina

and 6. near Moeraki, South Island, New Zealand

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moeraki_Boulders
http://jsedres.sepmonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/55/3/398
http://www.teara.govt.nz/1966/M/MoerakiBoulders/MoerakiBoulders/en

Some papers, which describe, illustrate, and discuss the origin
of cannonball concretions, which are similar in size to the
Chinese "mysterious stone eggs" are:

Abdel-Wahab, A., and E. F. McBride, 2001, Origin of giant
calcite-cemented concretions, Temple Member, Qasr El Sagha
Formation (Eocene), Faiyum depression, Egypt. Journal
Sedimentary Research. vol. 71, pp. 70-81.

Boles, J. R., C. A. Landis, and P. Dale, 1985, The Moeraki
Boulders; anatomy of some septarian concretions. Journal of
Sedimentary Petrology. vol. 55, no. 3, pp. 398-406.

Forsyth, P. J., and G. Coates, 1992, The Moeraki boulders.
Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences. Information Series
no. 1, Lower Hutt, New Zealand.

McBride, E. F., and K. L. Milliken, 2006, Giant calcite-cemented
concretions, Dakota Formation, central Kansas, USA. Sedimentology.
vol. 53, no. 5, pp. 1161–1179.

McBride, E. F., M. D. Picard, and K. L. Milliken, 2003, Calcite-
Cemented Concretions in Cretaceous Sandstone, Wyoming and Utah,
U.S.A. Journal of Sedimentary Research. vol. 73, no. 3,
pp. 462-483.

Thyne, G. D., and J. R. Boles, 1989, Isotopic evidence for
origin of the Moeraki septarian concretions, New Zealand:
Journal of Sedimentary Petrology. vol. 59, no. 2, pp. 272-279.

The original article which discusses the "Mysterious stone
eggs" is:

Mysterious Huge Stone Eggs Discovered in Hunan Province, Epoch
Times Staff, April 17, 2007.

It can be found at:

http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-4-17/54224.html

The article stated in part:

"Upon photo analysis geologists believe that the
stone eggs are rare, large concretions of the
carbonate rock. They were formed, starting from a
tiny nucleus in the center, snowballing slowly in
the oscillating sea water."

In this sentence, the reporter has very likely either mistranslated
what the geologists told him or her or is indulging in some poetic
license in writing his his story. No geologist, whom I know, would
argue that these concretions formed like snowballs. Instead, these
concretions, like many other cannonball concretions, started growing
within sediment underlying the bottom of a sea or ocean only after
it had accumulated. In the pictures accompanying the articles,
the original layering of the strata, in which the concretion grew,
can be seen as concentric rings around one of these concretions.

The original Chinese article is at

http://epochtimes.com/gb/7/4/1/n1665041.htm

Looking at the lowermost figure in the Chinese article, I have to
wonder, being unable to read Chinese, if the author of the Chinese
article is confusing them with the man made stone balls in Costa
Rica. (A translation of this article would be greatly appreciated.)

Best Regards,

Paul H.