… And they made the only garden of fossil stones in Russia. Or maybe in the whole world
These are huge balls of perfect shape - so strong that even an earth-moving excavator could not break them. They were found at the Sereulsky coal mine, which is located 140 kilometers from Krasnoyarsk. At a depth of 30 meters, the miners removed the soil and prepared the site for development. And then - this. They took out a dozen balls one by one, marveled - and brought them to the living quarters: let everyone look at the curiosity.
And there is something to be surprised. The balls are half human height, one and a half meters in diameter, and the surface is perfectly flat, as if the giants were polishing them for their games. When it rains, rust appears on the surface as spots - apparently, iron is mixed in the composition.
According to scientists, on this place many millions of years ago there was a world ocean, and natural processes took place in it, which today we can observe on the shore of any sea. So it may be that the found round multi-ton boulders are pebbles rolled by the waves of the ocean.
“This is a nodule on carbonate cement. Or, to make it clearer, cemented sandstone. We found them in the bed of an old river, in one place,”says Alexander Yakushev, Deputy Chief Engineer for Production at Sereulsky Open-Pit Mine.
Here's a rock garden
Photo: IA "Nazarovo-Online"
Promotional video:
Olga Yakunina, head of the exhibition department of the Museum of Geology of Central Siberia, explained to our colleagues from the Yenisei TV channel that the Sereul discovery is a rare phenomenon, but it is quite well-known. The round boulders were formed by analogy with a pearl. When a grain of sand gets into the shell of a mollusk, it begins to fight the inconvenience, covering it with smooth mother-of-pearl. The grain grows overgrown, scrolls and takes on a regular round shape. The same is the case with our find: for many thousands and millions of years, small stones were overgrown with sandstone, cemented, compacted, and the ocean polished their smooth shape.
Truly, what surprises nature does not present to us. However, other "gifts" from the past were also found at the Sereulsky section - the remains of fossil animals, mammoth tusks and even the skull of a woolly rhinoceros. So the workers of the quarry are ready for anything.
Elena SEREBROVSKAYA
