In many places of the planet there are stone outliers, pillars, hanging stones. Moreover, their shape, allegedly unstable "laying" and location tells many that it could only be folded by the hand of reason. To find such a balance and create balance - how can the forces of nature do this? Let's look at a few examples of such fantastic objects:
Irkutsk region. Olkhinskoe plateau.
In fact, a question arises in my head: how can everything hold up, withstand the winds and even earthquakes that occur in this territory? After all, clearly these bizarre stones, lying one above the other, are very unstable. It is enough to apply an effort to a strong wind or pass a seismic wave along the surface of the earth, as this “card idol” must surely collapse. But, no - it's worth it.
Krasnoyarsk pillars. Pillar * Feathers *.
One of the stones stands vertically - under it is the "foundation" of another stone. Having a very small bearing area underneath, it is stable. Although there is some inclination of one of the vertical stones. Fantastic resilience. Climbers regularly climb into the crevice between the stones. But the stone does not even think to stagger and lose balance.
In Yakutia. Granite rocks of Ulakhan-Sis. Photos by Sergey Karpukhin.
Also interesting outliers, many of which have retained their vertical position. I wonder how long they cost like that? Official geology dates their formation hundreds of millions of years ago. Of course, they were destroyed by erosion. Most likely, the destructive weathering processes created these pillars. If we imagine that these processes occur in all rocks, then even according to the theory of probability, such stable stones can form somewhere.
Promotional video:
1. Part of the rock "Seven brothers" in the Sverdlovsk region
2. Rock "Manskaya Baba", Krasnoyarsk Pillars
Balancing stones. As a rule, such remnants are located in hard-to-reach places, where only lovers of such species can get. Taiga travel is not for everyone. There are not many similar photos.
Balancing or "hanging stones":
1. Mount Roraima
2. Rock Idol in Brimham Rocks, England
Erosion has sharpened the rocks, leaving the upper masses in the balancing position. The result is a fantastic picture. Those stones that, during the erosion process, did not fall into the mass balance area, collapsed.
Balancing stones of Zimbabwe.
The play of the forces of nature.
Ergaki. Hanging stone.
This stone is perhaps the most famous for the search query "hanging stones". Ergaki is a popular tourist destination in summer. There are many photos with views of this stone.
If you still think about how these stones can be so steadily in such an amazing position? The fact that they keep the balance of the masses is understandable. But why, for example, do not the hanging stones slide down the mountainside? The force of friction is to blame. Rather, the static friction force:
If we assume that the coefficient of friction force between two granite surfaces is about unity, then in order to move down the hanging stone in Ergaki weighing about 600 tons, an effort must be applied to it with a force of at least 300-400 thousand kg * m / s2 (t.k. it lies at an angle of 30-45gr). Correct me if I am wrong. Even if the support area of this stone is reduced, it will continue to lie in place. It will overturn only when an imbalance of the masses occurs as a result of its destruction by erosion.
But such balancing stones can be made by a person. It turns out that there is an international competition for balancing stones in Texas:
Balancing stones set by Bill Dan, an Indian living in San Francisco. At first you think that they are held together by something:
Below are my photos and observations of similar balancing stones:
Samet Island, Gulf of Thailand off the coast of Thailand.
Like many, at first when I saw, I thought that they were strung on a pipe or somehow fastened. But coming closer, I realized that these were the balancing stones. Some of the locals or tourists made them into such "columns". Moreover, they are not destroyed by a strong wind. Only a storm or a wave of surf can destroy.
It is clear from these examples that there is nothing in these miracles that cannot be explained. Everything has physics and invisible processes in nature.
