Among the oddities that rain down upon us, are rocks. I am not speaking of meteorites. Everything from sall pebbles to gigantic blocks of limestone have fallen to the Earth. I have a friend, a retired Air Force Sgt. who once asked me ths seemingly simple, yet deeply ponderous question. He said he was walking in the desert, looking down he noticed that everywhere he looked, there were rocks. Everywhere, lying atop the soil. He asked himself, "Where did these rocks come from?" Its a question that seems very simple at first: mountains crumble, floods occur, pushing the rocks around. But everywhere? Big rocks, small rocks, everywhere you go, rocks. The erosion solution fails exceptionally well where I live, in a place called Long Island, New York, USA. Long Island was formed by glaciers, which as they came down through the Atlantic Ocean during the last two ice ages, pushed sediment up from the bottom of the ocean, and left it here where I live. There are no mountains on Long Island, there is no granite or other types of base rock, Long Island is a gigantic pile of mud. But everywhere you go, you will find giant, medium and small rocks lying on the surface. The reason this is curious is this simple fact: As matter falls into the atmosphere from outer space, as wind erodes mountains, fine particles of soot are lifted into the atmosphere. Thats why, when a paleontologist looks for fossils, 99 percent of the time he must dig for them. Over time, the soot settles, and what was once the surface becomes underground. So, while crumbling mountains, flash floods and dry rivers can account for certain amount of rocks lying about on the surface, it cannot account for the vast majority. I will not go into the Sgt.'s theory on where these stones and rocks are coming from, I will simply give you various accounts of times rocks, large and small, have fallen to the Earth without any logical explanation. |
Perhaps the earliest record of a mysterious - or miraculous - fall from the sky occurs in Chapter 10, Verse 11, of the Book of Joshua in the Old Testament. The Israelites, led by Joshua, have routed the Amorite army in a surprise night attack and are in hot pursuit: |
" And as they fled before Israel, while they were going down the ascent of Beth-hor'on, the LORD threw down great stones from heaven upon them as far as Aze'kah, and they died; there were more who died because of the hailstones than the men of Israel killed with the sword" |
Two verses after this, incidentally, one of the most astonishing events in the Old Testament is described: the sun stands still until the Israelites have avenged themselves. Whatever the explanation may be, we find many accounts in later centuries of motionless, bright, aerial disks. |
A fall of stones occurs in a military context occurs in the middle of the 6th century, when the Abyssinian Army, laying siege to Mecca, was put to flight by a fall of stones dropped supposedly by birds. However, at least one famous stonefall occurred (in ancient times) in the aftermath of a military action. This story is told in Chapter 31 of the first book of Livy's history of Rome, From the Founding of the City: After the defeat of the Sabines, when king Tullus [672-640 B.C.] and the entire Roman state were at a high pitch of glory and prosperity, it was reported to the king and senators that there had been a rain of stones on the Alban Mount [Mount Albanus] . As this could scarce be credited, envoys were dispatched to study the prodigy, and in teir site there fell from the heavens, like hailstones which the wind piles in drifts upon the ground, a shower of pebbles. The envoys also thought they had heard " a mighty voice issuing from the grove on the mountaintop" commanding the Albans to resume the ritual sacrifices they had neglected since the Roman victory. The Romans themselves took this order to heart, according to Livy, because thereafter "it remained a regular custom that whenever the same prodigy was reported there should be nine days of observance". (Whether the "same prodigy" refers to all subsequent falls of stones or just those on Mount Albanus remains unclear. |
In June 1642, lumps of burning sulphur the size of a mans fist fell from the sky onto the roof of Loburg Castle, 18 miles from Magdeburg, Germany. "Report o the 44th meeting of the British Association for the advancement of Science, 1874, p.272" |
At Marsala, on the western coast of Sicily, a small dark cloud appeared in a calm sky. It gradually increased in size and eventually shed a shower of stones onto the town, some of which damaged slates and roofs. Niles Weekly Register, 48:397, August 8, 1835' the appearance of a small, dark cloud, often red, yellow or black, in an otherwise clear sky, has often been reported as heralding a deluge of bizarre material. |
During a violen storm angular black pebbles fell on Wolverhampton, England, in such quantities that they had to be shoveled away. "La Science Pour Tous, 5: 264, July 19, 1860" |
A shower of warm stones fell outside the offices of the Charleston News and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina, at 2:30 a.m. on September 4, 1886. Another shower occurred at 7:30 am, and yet another at 1:30 that afternoon. As far as could be seen the stones appeared to fall from somewhere directly above the news papers offices, in a small area. They fell with great force and some broke apart upon contact with the pavement. They were described as polished pieces of flint, the smallest the size of a grape the largest the size of a hens egg. The same newspaper had reported earlier that Charleston had been struck by a major earthquake on August 31, "The Charelston News and Courier, September 6, 1886" |
Something described as "sulphur rain" fell on Mount Vernon, Kentucky, on March 21, 1898, and at several other locations in Rockcastle county. The substance was flammable and smelled of sulphur. "Monthly Weather Review, 26:115, March 1898" |
Rocks began to fall from the sky upon the town of Chico, California, in July 1921, and were still falling, intermittently, in November. The falling rocks attracted no great interest until the following January, when an investigation was undertaken by Marshall J.A. Peck, a local man. His conclusions were reported in the San Francisco Examiner on March 14. He had seen and heard the stones fall but could offer no explanation; he suspected that "someone with a machine was responsible" . The origins of the stones remained a mystery. According to Professor C.K. Studley, writing in the same edition of the Examiner : "Some of the rocks are so large that they could not have possibly been thrown with any ordinary means. One of the rocks weighed 16 pounds. They are not meteoric as suggested, because two of them show signs of being cemented, and no meteoric factor was ever connected with a cement factory." In March of 1922 the San Francisco Chronicle published a series of accounts of the stones. They had been falling in Chico, the paper said, on and off for the past four months, usually on the roofs of two adoining warehouses. A "downpour of oval shaped stones" was described and a " shower of warm rocks" . One writer, Miriam Allen de Ford, reported: I looked up at the cloudless sky, and suddenly saw a rock falling straight down, as if becoming visible when it was near enough. This rock struck the roof with a thud, and I could not find it." On March 17, one person was said to have been injured by a falling rock. "Charles Fort, The Complete Books of Charles Fort, pp. 533-35" Incidentally, Chico is famous for a great fall of fish as well. |
A ball of Limestone fell from the sky near Bleckenstad, Sweden, on April 11, 1925. On landing, it burst into fragments, anong which fossil shells and evidence of a creature resembling a trilobite were found by Professor Hadding of Lund University. "John Mitchell and Robert Rickard, Phenomena: A Book of Wonders p.17" |
She doesnt know how or why, but about a half pint of rocks fell on Mrs. Thomas Potter in San Diego, California, on August 31, 1969. Mrs. Potter said, " I went outside about 7:30 pm and we were peppered with these red rocks. They came with a gust of wwind from the north- in two bunches." Mrs. Potter poured the sky rocks from an instant coffee jar where she had kept them. They were lightweight, like pumice, rough to the touch, pitted with small pockmarks and holes, and a dark red in color. The largest stone was about the size of a quarter. "They fell and bounced off of parked cars" Mrs. Potter said "It was like hail for a few seconds". She and her husband, Thomas Potter, gathered up as many as they could find. "I dont know what they are" said Potter " but there were no airplanes, cars or trucks anywhere near us at the time this happened." "The San Diego Union, Seoptember 2, 1969" |
