Friday, August 15, 2014

Some More Freaky Friday Stuff...!

Some of the more freaky things around the world have been around for a long time, but never benn figured out.

I don't think we will ever have a lack of strange things to study if this keeps up.

Vitrified Forts
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In 1777, a man named John Williams, who was one of the earliest British geologists, described the phenomenon of vitrified forts. Vitrified forts are the name given to a type of crude stone enclosure or wall that shows signs of being subjected to intense heat. The structures have baffled geologists for centuries because people can’t figure out how the rocks were fused together. There is currently no accepted method for the vitrification of large scale objects. “The temperatures required to vitrify the entire fort structures are equal to those found in an atomic bomb detonation.” Hundreds of vitrified fort structures have been found across Europe and 80 such examples exist in Scotland. Some of the most remarkable include Dun Mac Sniachan, Benderloch, Ord Hill, Dun Creich, Castle Point, and Barra Hill.

The forts range in age from the Neolithic to Roman period. The structures are extremely broad and present the appearance of large embankments. The process used to develop the walls is thought to have involved extreme heat and many structures show signs of fire damage. However, vitrification is usually achieved by rapidly cooling a substance. It occurs when bonding between elementary particles becomes higher than a certain threshold. Thermal fluctuations break the bonds, therefore, the lower the temperature, the higher the degree of connectivity. The process of vitrification made headlines in 2012 when scientists used it to preserve organs and tissues at very low temperatures.

Many historians have argued that vitrified forts were subjected to carefully maintained fires to ensure they were hot enough to turn the rock to glass. In order to do this, the temperatures would have been maintained between 1050 and 1235°C, which would have been extremely difficult to do. It is also uncertain why people would have exposed the structures to such intense heat because when rock is superheated, the solid becomes significantly weaker and brittle. Some scientists have theorized that the vitrified forts were created by massive plasma events (solar flares). A plasma event occurs when ionized gas in the atmosphere takes the form of gigantic electrical outbursts, which can melt and vitrify rocks. During solar storms, the Sun is known to occasionally throw off massive spurts of plasma. As of 2012, vitrified forts remain one of the strangest anomalies on Earth.

Now, I don't know about you, but I am having a small problem accepting these things as all man made. Unfortunately I don't have any suitable explanation to offer up. Guess it will always be just another unknown freaky thing.

Coffee out on the patio this morning.

9 comments:

linda m said...

I'm going with the Ancient Alien theory or solar flares. Love these mysteries. I'll bring some crullers to go with our coffee this morning. Have a great weekend.

Sixbears said...

A good friend who was an expert in ancient languages said there were records of a solar storm. That was his explaination for the forts, among other things.

JO said...

Well Jim I like your theory and Sixbears friend may have a good theory too. It is very interesting either way.

I'll have a refill please.

Mamahen said...

Wow...interesting,and a bit frightening. I agree with the thought theses were not man made. I lean toward solar flares....47° here this a.m.....I'll have a hot cuppa and a cruller sounds good. Ty linda m :))

Momlady said...

If we have a solar storm like the one that may have formed the forts we are in deep doo-doo.

Unknown said...

Very interesting! Sometimes not knowing exactly how things came to be makes it more exciting.

Rob said...

The solar flare sounds good but if some of the structures were from the Roman period I'd think there would be records.
A solar flare with enough oomph hit's the earth and can do that to rock, well I'd think there would be records.

I wonder if all the forts are of the same design?

HermitJim said...

Hey Linda M...
I'm more inclined to go with the solar flares than anything else.

Thanks for coming over this morning.



Hey Sixbears...
Makes sense to me. Lots of power in those solar storms, as we now know.

Thanks for coming over today!



Hey Jo...
Guess it's one more of those things we'll never really know.

Thanks, sweetie, for coming over today!



Hey Mamahen...
47 sounds almost foreign to me in August. This time of the year here, being in the 70 degree range seems like a cool front!

Let's hope we don't have any more of those real soon.

Thanks for the visit!



Hey Hermit Ladee...
As always the fun is in the mystery and the search for the truth.

Thanks for coming over today!



Hey Rob...
Seems like someone would have recorded the event in some fashion, doesn't it? Scary stuff!

Thanks for coming by today!

Dizzy-Dick said...

Yep, I am inclined to agree with the solar flares theory. Unless there were some really hot gals around at that time. . .