Stone showers are usually called meteor showers - multiple meteorites falling to the Earth. Today it is difficult to surprise with such news. However, it also happens that ordinary stones fall from the sky. Several cases of stone rain have been recorded in the world. But the explanation for this phenomenon was not always found.
Unknown
The story, which still remains a mystery to scientists, took place in November 1921 in the Californian city of Chico with a population of 10 thousand people. One of the local residents came to the police with a complaint that someone was throwing stones on the roof of his house. Then everyone took it for the tricks of some bully. But six months later, stones of various sizes began to fall from somewhere on top of the warehouse, and this lasted all day. The building was badly damaged: windows were knocked out, walls and roof were broken. The stones were smooth as pebbles, as if water had washed them for a long time. Some were warm and dry, while others were cold and wet. Experts have established that these are ordinary stones, of which there are many along the banks of the local river.
The next day the stone rain did not stop. The police were still looking for pranksters, but in vain. Moreover, the rockfall expanded its boundaries, moving to the houses adjacent to the warehouse.
When newspapers reported this unusual phenomenon, crowds of curious people flooded into the city. Vincent Jones, a specialist in parapsychological research, also arrived. After examining everything, Jones stated unequivocally that this was not human handiwork. The stones began their flight paths two blocks from where they landed, and what set them in motion was far more powerful than a human hand or a catapult.
The invited sorceress Rachel Nelson also did not clarify. Eyewitnesses said that the stones appeared against a clear sky and fell vertically down.
Several days passed. Stones from the sky continued to fall. They fell with such force that they damaged buildings and products in warehouses. Geologists found out that this time it was serpentine, or serpentine, which should not be in these places.
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Soon the townspeople noticed that someone was dismantling a stone empty house in parts, and such fragments that were difficult to reach were disappearing from the building. At the same time, valuable things inside the house were intact.
A week later, the rockfall reached the city center. People were afraid to go out. When the chief of police began to think about involving the aviation in the investigation, he received a letter from a certain inventor, in which a man stated that the rockfall was his work. Allegedly, he wanted to get a patent for his invention, which allows throwing stones at a distance of 550 m at an altitude of 180 m. The author of the letter reported that he intends to leave the city. By the type of the typewriter, the inventor was found and arrested, but his arrest did not stop the stone rains. They continued to periodically fall on Chico, after a short break they suddenly became active again. This was mentioned in the press on January 28, 1924.
Everything stopped during the Great Depression, when the owner of the warehouse went bankrupt, and then the warehouse premises were completely burned down. The secret never ceased to be a secret. But the owner of the warehouse remained with the opinion that his warehouses were the center of the urban poltergeist.
But the last century did not end …
No mysteries
In May 2018, the Kilauea volcano erupted in Hawaii. This natural cataclysm caused a lot of troubles. About 600 houses were destroyed and the tourist area was completely destroyed. But nature, as if apologizing for this, presented the locals with an amazing surprise. Together with lava, a stone rain of … precious stones fell on the island. More precisely, from olivine contained in volcanic rocks. It is also called chrysolite. When a volcanic eruption occurs, olivine is released.
Locals found these small greenish-olive pebbles everywhere: on the beaches and streets. They even came up with their own name - the small stones of Kilauea. University of Hawaii geologist Sherrill Ganseki, who studies everything related to this volcano, also believes that the olivine rain was the result of an eruption.
By the way, for a carat of olivine, you can get 450 dollars, although in the composition of the "rain" came across only small copies, the cost of which is much less.
Leaky bag
In April 2019, an Indian news site reported that something incredible was happening in the Kotwali Thana Madhubanpara area: stones were falling from the sky. No one could understand the reason for the strange phenomenon, which lasted more than one day: neither the locals, nor the police who arrived at the scene, nor scientists. The stones were carefully examined and came to the conclusion that they have nothing to do with meteorites. These are pieces of rock that look like asbestos. Some natives have a whole collection of these "messengers of heaven".
A terrible rain of stones pierced the roofs of houses, broke furniture or smashed shelves with goods in stores. There were cases of hitting people, although the most serious injury was a concussion or minor fractures.
Hundreds of people reported to the police. Someone demanded payment of insurance for the damaged property, someone hoped to find the hooligans who perpetrated this disgrace. Panic began in the city. Local residents stopped going outside unless absolutely necessary. It was noticed that the rockfall occurred at the same time - from 7 to 11 pm. The stones were about the same size - about 2 kg.
Of course, the police immediately began looking for the jokers who were supposedly firing at the city with a catapult (the first that came to mind). To this end, the police literally combed the city. But to no avail.
According to local residents, the objects fell strictly vertically, as if a huge bag of stones hung over the city, which suddenly leaked out. Until now, no one can explain the nature of this stone rain.
The usual thing
In 2009, scientists discovered the exoplanet COROT-7b in the constellation Unicorn, which is twice the size of the Earth, and five times in weight. The planet is located very close to its star, the day on it is 20 hours. Its bright side is a huge ocean of lava with a temperature of about 2.5 thousand degrees. The tremendous temperature is well above that required to melt many minerals. And the dark side is covered with a thick layer of ice, and the temperature there is minus 223 degrees. American scientists led by Bruce Fegley managed to create a computer model of the planet's climate. In their opinion, a cycle also occurs on the exoplanet, only not water, as on Earth, but molten rocky rock. Above, stone vapor condenses into fine fractions and falls down from the "silicate clouds" into molten lava.
Another exoplanet, HAY-P-7b, located a thousand light years from Earth, is 40% larger than Jupiter and is also located close to the star. The temperature on it is about 2 thousand degrees. Scientists from the UK, observing it, suggested that corundum clouds are forming on its dark side. Later, the winds carry them to the light side, where they evaporate. And then it starts to rain from small rubies and sapphires - varieties of corundum.
And if we talk about stone rains in the solar system, then the four planets - Neptune, Uranus, Jupiter and especially Saturn - could enrich any person, if they were inhabited. The fact is that on Saturn, due to severe storms in the atmosphere, methane decays, releasing carbon. Falling down, under pressure, it turns into graphite, and then in flight into diamonds about a millimeter in diameter. We can say that these planets are raining diamond.
Heavenly cities
In his book "1001 Forgotten Miracles", published in 1919 in America, ufologist and conspiracy theorist Charles Fort described several stone rains. He believes that their source is the flying cities, about which Jonathan Swift wrote. It is difficult for us to believe in their existence, but there is something in this hypothesis.
Magazine: All the riddles of the world №10. Author: Galina Minnikova