Thursday, January 5, 2012

Stone Spheres From Scandinavian Glacial Erratics

The Scandinavian Peninsula occupies part the Baltic Shield, a stable and large crust segment of very old crystalline metamorphic rocks. In the southern part of the peninsula the glaciers deposited vast numbers of terminal moraines, configuring a very chaotic landscape. These terminal moraines covered all of what is now Denmark.
During the Ice Ages, the sea level of the Atlantic dropped so much that the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland disappeared, and the countries now surrounding them, including Germany, Poland, the other Baltic countries and Scandinavia were directly joined. The weight of nearly 4 km of ice during the Ice Ages caused all of the Scandinavian terrain to sink, when he ice disappeared, the shield rose again. Conversely the southern part has tended to sink to compensate, causing the flooding of the Low Countries and Denmark.
To understand the geology of Scandinavia, we must go back 500 million years. Northern Europe and Scandinavia were previously one continent called BALTICA, at that time was situated south of the equator, approximately where South Africa is placed today. Over millions of years, due to the continental drifting of the continents, Baltica drifted northwards until reaching its present position on the globe. The rocks from this continent are ancient, some of then dating back to 3500 million years, nearly as old as our planet. The oldest are found in Northern Finland and the Kola Peninsula in Russia.
During the Ice Ages, the 4km high glaciers in Scandinavia plucked and abraded an enormous amount of rocks from the earths surface and transported them together with the ice southward towards northern Europe, Denmark and Russia. There were 3 main bodies of ice, the first from Norway towards Denmark, the second, from Finland and Sweden towards Northern Germany, and the third from northern Russia towards the south and the areas around Poland. When the ice melted at the end of the Ice Age approximately 10,000 years ago the rocks were deposited in the form of moraines, eskers, drumlins and glacier erratics over a large area from Denmark, northern Europe, eastern Europe and Russia. The size of these glacial erratics go from grains of sand to huge boulders, the largest intact rock weighs 4000 tons and is found in Estland. There are several hundred of these large boulders found all over northern Europe, Denmark and the Netherlands.
These glacial erratics place of origin is from the ancient continent of Baltica today known as Scandinavia, these are the stones I've collected, identified as a specific type of rock, the composition and the age of the rocks by carbon dating. Subsequently have cut and polished them into perfect spheres.
Over the past 3 years have traveled frequently to localities where the above mentioned stones are found and have collected approximately over 3 tons of this material which i have transported back to my cutting workshop in Germany.
After building various types and sizes of machines so as to cut and polish these rocks into perfect spheres, have proceeded to identify the stones using pictures and references from petrologist who are occupied in this field of study, mostly from various universities in northern Germany and the Netherlands.

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