Top 10 Unusual Rock Spheres Around the World

Mysterious stone spheres have been found around the world. Their purpose and how they were made remains a mystery. They are referred to as petrospheres. Some are explainable by nature, others by man's hand and some like this first one, well, there were no human hands there - we think.

On an uninhabited inhospitable island in Russian waters only 900 km from the North Pole, are some very strange huge round spheres of stone. Josef Franz Land Island is a very curious place. Eighty five percent of the island is glacial year-round.

These, however, are not the only ones found around the world - petrospheres are everywhere! 

Easter Island

Easter Island has these spheres placed inside a circle of stones and referred to as a "navel." The islanders carried a legend of moving the statues using these stones and some magical qualities.

Mexico 

Near the Piedra Bola Mines in Mexico, there are hundreds of strange stone balls. Some are buried, some are atop the ground in various stages of erosion over time. Experts have surmised that these balls were created naturally long ago by volcanic means. 

South Africa "Klerksdorp Spheres"

Miners in South Africa were digging up these odd balls and it began a rush to figure out what these out of place things were. These small round objects were dated back 3 billion years and appeared to be metallic.  These items were later explained as made naturally billions of years ago by volcanic means. 

Scotland

These stone ball carvings found in Scotland were associated with standing stone rings too. Source: 
These small, carved stone balls are distinctly Scottish objects, with over 425 known. Most have been found in Aberdeenshire. They are similar in size and a few are decorated with spirals and curved motifs. While most carved balls are Scottish objects, several have been discovered in Orkney and a few have been found on Skye, Iona, Lewis, Harris and Uist. In addition, some have been uncovered in Ireland and England. Mathematicians are interested in Carved Stone Balls because of their aesthetic beauty as they have amongst them all the symmetrical forms of the five Platonic solids.

Costa Rica

In the 1930s, hundreds of huge stone balls were found in Costa Rica. They have ranged in size and up to 16 tons. They were made of a hard stone, granodiorite. There were deemed made by man and not made by nature (such as was the case in Mexico). 

Bosnia

In 2004, a team of researchers found stone spheres around the Bosnia in various locations. The spheres vary in size from smallest around 19 inches to quite huge - 78 inches! And they appear to have been carved and polished purposefully. 

Source: Palaeomagnetic research around the world has shown that granodiorite is more strongly magnetized than the country rocks, accounting for a positive aeromagnetic anomaly. Experiments and analysis of magnetic rocks have also shown that granodiorite contains dominant magnetic minerals, while experiments in Physics have demonstrated that the magnetic field strength inside the spherical object is approximately three times that of the externally applied field. In other words, the magnetic field is amplified inside the sphere.

New Zealand

The Moeraki Boulders lying on the beaches in New Zealand at Zoekohe Beach come with a local Maori legend that they were some kind of shipwreck debris.

They consist of mud, clay, silt and calcite, bonding together into a kind of ball. They are believed to be shoreline boulders sort of worn over time from water.

China Volcanic Eggs

Construction workers found these in the Hunan Province of China. They said there were nests of these huge stone eggs. They are said to be shiny and black on the inside. Experts believe them to be large rare concentrations of carbonate rock.

Olmec Heads

Carved of basalt rock, these huge heads were found in Mexico and attributed to an early civilization referred to as Olmecs from 800-600 BC. What has amazed experts is the features on these stone figures that appear to be not at all like the Aztecs, Mayans and other "Natives" of the Americas. I am reminded of another Pacific find - 

Conclusion

So, how did those stone spheres show up on the most remote island in the icy seas where only walruses call it home on Josef Franz Land Island? How about in jungles, far inland, and other locations? 

I wonder at the purpose of such balls and then I think of this puzzle from biblical writings - 

Ezekiel 1:16
The appearance of the wheels and their workmanship was like sparkling beryl, and all four of them had the same form, their appearance and workmanship being as if one wheel were within another. Whenever they moved, they moved in any of their four directions without turning as they moved.…

Interesting - sounds like a stone sphere that can roll in any direction without needing to turn, eh??

More info:
Stone Balls Worldwide