Klerksdorp Spheres
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The Klerksdorp Spheres are small, 0.5 to 10 cm in maximum diameter objects, which have been found by miners and collected by rockhounds from 2.8 billion year old pyrophyllite mined by Wonderstone Ltd. near Ottosdal, South Africa. Although these objects are claimed to be "perfectly" spherical in shape, these objects vary widely in shape from noticably flattened spheres to distinct disks as noted in Heinrich (1997). In addition, he found examples of Klerksdorp "Spheres" intergrown with each other like soap bubbles. This observation refuted the claims made in various books, articles, and web pages that these objects are always isolated in their occurence. The observed number of grooves exhibited by these objects varies between none to three.
Some have claimed their so-called "spherical shape" and fine grooves could only have been created by intelligent beings - making them a classic "out-of-place artefact". This view is expressed in Cremo and Thompson (1996, 1999). Others say they are pyrite nodules of metamorphic origin and goethite nodules formed by the weathering of the pyrite. For example, Dr. Bruce Cairncross of the Department of Geology at the Rand Afrikaans University, Johannesburg has examined a number these objects and concluded that they are natural concretions. He proposed that the grooves resulted from the growth of these concretions in laminated sediments (Cairncross 1988, Pope and Cairncross 1988).
In his article on the subject, Paul Heinrich notes that one of Cremo's sources regarding the allegedly anomalous spheres was the Weekly World News which he described as "...a (sic) unreliable source of data for discussing the origins of the South African spheres described as used by Forbidden Archeology. As noted by Cairncross (1988), it appears that the source of the Weekly World News article is an article in a 1982 issue of Scopes Magazine, about these objects. Scopes Magazine was a South African tabloid well known for pictures of undressed well-endowed women with black stars stategically placed to satisfy South Afican censorship of the 1980's.
[edit] References cited
- Cairncross, B., 1988, "Cosmic cannonballs" a rational explanation. The South African Lapidary Magazine. vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 4-6.
- Cremo, M., and R.L. Thompson, 1996, Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race: Torchlight Publishing. ISBN 0-89213-294-9
- Cremo, M., and R.L. Thompson, 1999, The Hidden History of the Human Race: Torchlight Publishing. ISBN 0-89213-325-2
- Heinrich, P.V., 1997, Mystery spheres. National Center for Science Education Reports. vol. 17, no.1, p. 34. (January/February 1997).
- Pope, C., and B. Cairncross, 1988, "Cosmic cannoballs" a geologic explanation. ARIP View. no. 1., pp. 5-6. (ARIP = Association for the Rational Investigation of the Paranormal)
