Stone balls
Encyclopedia
The terms Stone balls, "stone ball", "stone sphere
s", and "stone sphere" have been used to designate spherical stone objects of both natural and artificial origin. Different types of stone balls include:
Sphere (disambiguation)
A sphere is an object shaped like a ball and can also be used to refer to a sphere-like region or shell.Sphere may also refer to:-In mathematics:* Ball , the volume inside a sphere...
s", and "stone sphere" have been used to designate spherical stone objects of both natural and artificial origin. Different types of stone balls include:
Natural
- Natural Stone Balls
- megaspherulites
- cannonball concretions
- Moqui marbles
- spherical corestones created by spheroidal weatheringSpheroidal weatheringSpheroidal weathering is a type of chemical weathering that creates rounded boulders and helps to create domed monoliths. This should not be confused with stream abrasion, a physical process which also creates rounded rocks on a much smaller scale...
Artificial
- Artificial Stone Balls (PetrospherePetrosphereIn archaeology, a petrosphere is the name for any spherical man-made object of any size that is composed of stone. These mainly prehistoric artefacts may have been created and/or selected, but altered in some way to perform their specific function, including carving and painting.Several classes of...
s)- lapidaryLapidaryA lapidary is an artist or artisan who forms stone, mineral, gemstones, and other suitably durable materials into decorative items such as engraved gems, including cameos, or cabochons, and faceted designs...
spheres - LithicLithicLithic may refer to:*a stone tool*Lithic analysis*Lithic stage*Lithic core *Lithic reduction *Lithic technology *Lithic flake *Lithic fragment...
-BolasBolasBolas are a throwing weapon superficially similar to the surujin, made of weights on the ends of interconnected cords, designed to capture animals by entangling their legs... - stone round shotRound shotRound shot is a solid projectile without explosive charge, fired from a cannon. As the name implies, round shot is spherical; its diameter is slightly less than the bore of the gun it is fired from.Round shot was made in early times from dressed stone, but by the 17th century, from iron...
(cannonballs) - spherical stone shot for trebuchetTrebuchetA trebuchet is a siege engine that was employed in the Middle Ages. It is sometimes called a "counterweight trebuchet" or "counterpoise trebuchet" in order to distinguish it from an earlier weapon that has come to be called the "traction trebuchet", the original version with pulling men instead of...
s - Stone spheres of Costa RicaStone spheres of Costa RicaThe stone spheres of Costa Rica are an assortment of over three hundred petrospheres in Costa Rica, located on the Diquis Delta and on Isla del Caño. Known locally as Las Bolas, they are also called The Diquis Spheres...
- Carved Stone BallsCarved Stone BallsCarved Stone Balls are petrospheres, usually round and rarely oval. They have from 3 to 160 protruding knobs on the surface. Their size is fairly uniform, they date from the late Neolithic to possibly the Iron Age and are mainly found in Scotland...
of ScotlandScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
- lapidary
- Kugel ballKugel ballA Kugel ball is a sculpture consisting of a large granite ball supported by a very thin film of water. Water flows beneath a very heavy, perfectly spherical rock from a spherical concave base with exactly the same curvature...
s
Stone round shot (cannonballs)
- Ammunition columnAmmunition columnAn ammunition column consists of military vehicles carrying artillery and small arms ammunition for the combatant unit to which the column belongs. Thus the ammunition columns of a division, forming part of the brigades of field artillery, carry reserve ammunition for the guns, the machine guns of...
- Ruffell, W.L., 1996, The Gun - Smoothbore Era 1550-1860: Projectiles Royal New Zealand Artillery Old Comrades' Association, New Zealand.
Stone balls (spheres) of Costa Rica
- Hoopes, J.W., 2005, The Stone Balls of Costa Rica University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas.
Carved stone balls of Scotland
- Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, nd, Carved Stone Balls A gallery of carved stone ball photographs & information
- Marischal Virtual Museum, nd, ball, carved stone Aberdeen Museum's virtual gallery of their Carved Stone balls
Megaspherulites
- Baird, Bill, 1990, Stone Spheres, The Edinburgh Geologist, no 24 (Spring)
- Heinrich, P.V., 2007, Megaspherulites. PDF version, 1.4 MB BackBender's Gazette. vol. 38, no. 7, pp. 8-12.
- Rodríguez, E.A., 2002, The fantastic balls in el Cerro Piedras Bola (Jalisco), México desconocido # 305, July 2002. Last visited February 11, 2008.
- Smith, R.K., R.L. Tremallo, and G.E. Lofgren, 2000, Megaspherulite Growth: Far From Equilibrium Crystallization, GeoCanada 2000 - The Millennium Geoscience Summit, Canadian Society of Exploration Geophysicists Annual Meeting.
- Smith, R.K., R.L. Tremallo, and G.E. Lofgren, 2001, Growth of megaspherulites in a rhyolitic vitrophyre, American Mineralogist. vol. 86, pp. 589–600.
Cannonball Concretions
- Hanson, W.D., and J.M. Howard, 2005, Spherical Boulders in North-Central Arkansas PDF version, 2.8 MB Arkansas Geological Commission Miscellaneous Publication n. 22, pp. 1-23.
- Heinrich, P.V., 2007, The Giant Concretions of Rock City Kansas PDF version, 836 KB BackBender's Gazette. vol. 38, no. 8, pp. 6-12.
- Irna, 2006, All that nature can never do, part IV : stone spheres
- Irna, 2007a, Stone balls : in France too!
- Irna, 2007b, Stone balls in Slovakia, Czech Republic and Poland
- Leo Gav, 2007, Underwater stone balls
- Hokianga Tourism Association, nd, Koutu boulders Really nice pictures of cannonball concretions.
- Moeraki BouldersMoeraki BouldersThe Moeraki Boulders are unusually large and spherical boulders lying along a stretch of Koekohe Beach on the wave cut Otago coast of New Zealand between Moeraki and Hampden, and are located at . They occur scattered either as isolated or clusters of boulders within a stretch of beach where they...
- Rock City, KansasRock City, KansasRock City is a park located on hillsides overlooking the Solomon River in Ottawa County, Kansas. It is 3.6 miles south of Minneapolis, Kansas and just over 0.5 mile west of Kansas highway K-106 and the Minneapolis City County Airport on Ivy Road at...
- United States Geological Survey, nd, cannonball concretion