In the center and in the south of Romania, far from cities, there are amazing stones. The locals even came up with a special name for them - trovants. These stones can not only grow, but also … multiply.
In most cases, these stones have a rounded or streamlined shape and are devoid of sharp chips. They look little different from any other boulders, of which there are many in these places. But after the rain, something incredible begins to happen to the Trovantes: they, like mushrooms, begin to grow and increase in size.
Each trovant weighing only a few grams can grow over time and become more than a ton heavier. Young stones grow faster, while the growth of trovant slows down with age.
Growing stones consist mostly of sandstone. Their internal structure is also very unusual: if you cut a stone in half, then on the cut, like a cut from a tree, you can see several age rings centered around a small hard core.
Despite all the uniqueness of the trowans, geologists are in no hurry to class them as inexplicable phenomena for science. According to scientists, the growing stones, although unusual, but their nature lends itself to explanation. Geologists argue that trowants are the result of a long process of cementation of sand, which took place for millions of years in the bowels of the earth. On the surface, such stones were found in the course of strong seismic activity.
Scientists have found an explanation for the growth of trowants: the stones increase in size due to the high content of various mineral salts under their shell. When the surface gets wet, these chemicals begin to expand and press on the sand, causing the stone to "grow".
Promotional video:
Reproduction by budding
Nevertheless, trowants have one feature that geologists are unable to explain. Living stones, in addition to growing, are also capable of multiplying. It happens like this: after the surface of the stone gets wet, a small bulge appears on it. Over time, it grows, when the weight of the new stone becomes large enough, it breaks off from the mother.
The structure of the new trovants is the same as that of other, older stones. There is also a core inside, which is the main mystery for scientists. If the growth of a stone can somehow be explained from a scientific point of view, then the process of dividing a stone core defies any logic. In general, the breeding process of trowants resembles budding, which is why some experts seriously thought about the question of whether they are not a hitherto unknown inorganic form of life.
Locals have known about the unusual properties of trowans for more than one hundred years, but they do not pay special attention to them. In the past, growing stones were used as building materials. Trovanti can often be found in Romanian cemeteries - large stones are installed as tombstones due to their unusual appearance.
Also noted for some trovantes is another fantastic ability. Like the famous crawling stones from the California Valley of Death, they sometimes move from place to place.
Open-air museum
Today Trovante is one of those sights of Central Romania, which attracts tourists from all over the world to take a look. In turn, resourceful Romanians make souvenirs and decorations from small trowans, and therefore each guest has the opportunity to bring a piece of the stone miracle with him from the trip. Many owners of souvenir stones claim that when they get wet, memorable products from trowans begin to grow, and they sometimes move around the house without permission, which makes a rather eerie impression.
The largest accumulation of growing stones was recorded in the Romanian county (region) of Valcea. On its territory there are trovants of various shapes, sizes and colors. In connection with the great interest of tourists, in 2006 the Vulči authorities in the village of Costesti established the only open-air museum of trowans in the whole country. Its area is 1.1 hectares. On the territory of the museum, the most unusual-looking growing stones from all around are collected. Those who wish for a small fee can familiarize themselves with the exposition and purchase small samples as souvenirs.
Russian relatives
Stones similar to Romanian trovants are found in other countries of the world. There is something similar in Russia. For several years now, on the territory of the Kolpnyansky district of the Oryol region in the village of Andreevka and its environs, rounded boulders have appeared from the ground, as if by magic, on the surface. They can be seen in fields, vegetable gardens, near houses and in personal plots.
Oryol growing stones look like stuck together sand, but this is deceiving fragility. In fact, these stones are very durable, and in order to break off even a small fragment from them, you need to make great efforts.
The sizes of the stones vary greatly. In the vicinity of Andreevka, there are both small growing stones and huge blocks of several meters in length, resembling building slabs.
Both geologists and local historians are trying to understand the nature of this phenomenon. Growing stones are very popular with local residents.
They are endowed with mystical properties, it is believed that the boulders growing out of the ground are rich in the life-giving power of mother earth. Some even carried several stones and decorated the road to the local holy springs with them. Others build decorative rockeries from stones on their backyards and use them as decoration materials for houses.
The unusualness of the trowans sometimes leads to the emergence of very bold and, at first glance, implausible opinions and hypotheses, which official science is in no hurry to recognize as authentic. A number of researchers, as already mentioned, believe that Trovants are representatives of an inorganic form of life. The principle of their existence and structure have nothing to do with the same characteristics of the already studied species of flora and fauna. At the same time, the growing stones can turn out to be both the indigenous inhabitants of our planet, who have imperceptibly existed for thousands of years side by side with humans, and representatives of unearthly life forms that have fallen to earth with meteorites or brought by aliens.
It is possible that people are looking for other forms of life in the wrong place, real aliens have long been among us, and we simply do not notice them.
Mikhail KUZMIN
"Secrets of the XX century" May 2012