Trovants couldn’t believe they are real. The mysterious living stones of Romania grow when it rains and move from one place to another without any support. The Stones of Costesti (a small village) in Romania are known as Trovants. These are types of sandstone concretion that secrete cement and can at times appear to grow as if alive.
These Trovants are amazing geological phenomena consisting of a stone core with an outer shell of sand. The local people have different thoughts and claims; these are growing stones after heavy rain, Trovants tend to appear with smooth and edge-less shapes, cylindrical, nodular, and spherical.
They’ve strongly believed that these are types of sandstone concretion that secrete cement and can appear to grow at times as if they are alive. These majestic growing rocks seem identical look to the sliding rocks of Death Valley. Trovants stones have puzzled experts ever since their discovery. No one can say with definite how these stones grow and move. The perfect spherical-shaped Trovants which sometimes can be found are believed to be because of the great magnitudes and duration of the paleoearthquakes.
Trovants are Amazing Geological Phenomena?
Trovants is a synonym of the German term “Sandsteinkonkretionen”, which means Cemented Sand. In fact, these are mesmerizing living stones when cut had spherical and ellipsoidal rings like the ones of a tree trunks. There are numerous theories on Trovants stones, as scientists are baffled by the phenomenon and some explain the origin and strange behavior of Trovants. There were few studies about the origin of these growing stones in Romania, and there are several hypotheses, some of them even fantastical. Trovants were improperly considered as “sandstone concretions”.
It was found that there was no mineralogical difference between these pseudoconcretions and the surrounding sands, with no different nucleus inside them, and their cement is every so often carbonate-type. Scientists have observed odd rings which resemble those of the trees. And just like it is with the trees, the stone rings reveal the age of the Trovants. That’s why many believe Trovants are an inorganic form of life.
The mysterious stone of Romania signifies diagenetic texture’s shiny paleodynamic conditions and corresponds to precise compactions of the sandy sediments holding local solutions accumulated in the sand. Therefore, during important seismic shocks and under the influence of the internal cohesion forces tended to be spherical forms.
Also, the gravitation force, seismic shocks, solution cohesion forces, and the adhesion strength between the sand grains and the liquid are believed to be involved in this process. The hypothesis on the seismic origin of the Trovants is very well sustained by several laboratory experiments. According to the International Geological Congress conducted in Oslo in 2008, “Trovanti” were improperly considered “sandstone concretions”.
There are various Trovants in Romania that are even diversely shaped. As far as the growth of these “living stones” is concerned, certain stones may gradually get slightly larger as the result of absorbing water, in this case, the accumulations and deposits of minerals cemented by waters rich in calcium carbonate seem to be the reason. Moreover, there was a sedimentation basin in this area some six million years ago, and the Trovants were not identical and complex aggregates of two or more Trovants can every so often be found.
These stones are unusually tough to break or smash. Generally, no one touches them, so they have the chance to grow from little pebbles to enormous megaliths. There is a museum in Romania, in which the fascinating stones are on display and sold as souvenirs. Even you can plant a Trovants in your garden and wait for it to grow. The biggest Trovants grow to more than 10 meters in height.
The growth of growing stones in Romania is believed to happen when a chemical reaction sets in between the layers of deposits and the mineral carbonates in the presence of rainwater. Hence, due to interesting ‘living rocks’ that seem to grow, the site became a good tourist attraction for Romania. To protect these unusual geological creations, the “Muzeul Trovantilor” or Trovants Museum Natural Reserve is now protected by UNESCO.
Furthermore “Living stones” can also be found in Russia. Huge round stones periodically pop up from the ground and start to grow in the fields of Andreevka. So, if you ever go to Romania then you must have a stop at Costesti and explore the fascinating mysterious formations that continue to amaze both Scientists and tourists alike.
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Source: Geologyin ! Ancients Bg