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Mysterious Moving Boulders Are Lifted By Storms
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A boulder ridge along the coastline of the Aran Islands. Some of the biggest rocks make mysterious movements. CREDIT: Ronadh Cox. |
For years, geologists have puzzled over mysterious boulders that litter the desolate coastline of Ireland's Aran Islands. When nobody is looking, the massive rocks somehow move on their own.
What unseen hand is capable of ripping a multitude of heavy boulders from the craggy cliffs below and tossing them so far inland?
While some researchers contend that only a tsunami could push these stones, new research in The Journal of Geology finds that plain old ocean waves, with the help of some strong storms, did the job. And the waves are still at it.
The sizes of the boulders in the formations range "from merely impressive to mind-bogglingly stupendous," writes geoscientist Rónadh Cox, who led the research with her students from Massachusetts' Williams College.
