In the San Bernardino Mountains, near the highway connecting Las Vegas to Los Angeles, scientists recently (in 2015) discovered a geological mystery: giant boulders that froze in strange positions just above the San Andreas Fault.
According to Professor Lisa Grant Ludwig of the University of California Irvine, who demonstrated this miracle of nature to her colleagues at a regular meeting of the US Seismological Society, it is not the balancing stones themselves that are perplexing. The most amazing thing is that the stones do not move from their places, despite the strong earthquakes with an epicenter a few kilometers away.
Stones that maintain acrobatic balance can be found all over the world. Geological and meteorological forces of nature wash away the rock around them, placing giant rocks in unusual positions, forcing them to balance on other rocks. Scientists have even come up with a name for them - unstable hanging blocks.
As Professor Ludwig notes, when you find yourself in areas with strong seismic activity, there are fewer and fewer such hanging blocks. Scientists have proven that the balancing stones indicate that strong earthquakes do not occur in these places, otherwise such structures would simply fall apart. Therefore, to see such phenomena near active faults is at least strange.
However, the stone structures in San Bernandino are impressive. There are two rock clusters with more than 10 hanging blocks, some of which are just 7 km from the fault. The professor noted that some of the blocks could be shaken by hand. Studies have shown that the stones remained in this position for several millennia - some of them are already 18 thousand years old.
According to Ludwig, this is a very long time interval, especially considering that there is a large rift nearby. How small clusters of hanging stones withstood a strong shock and remained intact is still unclear. Scientists and researchers cannot provide a clear explanation.
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