Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Thanks CTOnews.com netizen Hua Ke high achiever's clue delivery! This article comes from the official account of Wechat: SF Chinese (ID:kexuejiaodian), author: SF

There is a strange kind of stone in Romania. It is called trovant. As the name implies, the growth stone grows bigger and bigger over time, just like a creature with "life". It can grow up over time. Not only that, even the mother stone can give birth to a small growth stone, and the small growth stone will grow slowly.

(Emma Davis / Emma Davies)

Translation / Li Xiang

Edited / Zhao Jiaming

The growth stone is a kind of sandstone, round and round. They are mainly distributed in Romania, the most famous of which is in the village of Kostesti. For the purpose of protection and publicity, the local people specially set up the growth Stone Nature Conservation Museum. Growth stones play an important role in local folklore-they were once thought to be giant dinosaur eggs, plant fossils or alien creations.

The word "trovant" was coined by a naturalist, meaning "solidified sand". The name also reflects the formation of the growth stone: limestone (calcium carbonate) binds sand and stone together to form a growth stone (essentially cement). Geologists believe that these growth stones were formed in earthquakes in the middle Miocene more than 5 million years ago. At that time, the sandstone bed where the growing stone was located could be a lake or an ocean, and the river kept bringing sediment here. In fact, fossils of bivalves and gastropods are occasionally found in growth stones, which confirms this.

Why can the growth stone grow up? Growing stones vary greatly in size and shape, ranging from a few centimeters to several meters in diameter. With the passage of time, the volume of most rocks will gradually become smaller due to weathering and erosion, but the growth stone will slowly "grow up". As for the mechanism of growth stone growth, scientists have different speculations. At present, scientists generally believe that when it rains, the growth stone can absorb minerals in Rain Water. The absorbed minerals will seep into the interior of the growth stone, react with the chemical composition of the growth stone itself, and produce outward pressure to promote the expansion of the growth stone. It seems to us that the growth stone does grow in size. However, the growth of growth stones is so slow that we cannot see their changes visually. It is estimated that a growth stone of a few centimeters takes more than 1000 years to form.

More strangely, some scientists cut the growth stone in two and studied the internal structure and composition of the growth stone. They found that the growth stone was made up of cement-like mixed minerals and inorganic salts, and the scientists observed strange rings-like tree rings. At present, there is no definite conclusion on how these "rings" are formed. You may think that the growth stone is like a tree, growing year after year to form these "rings", but the mechanism for the growth of the growth stone has not yet been found, and the existing mechanism, as mentioned earlier, is the rock expansion driven by pressure.

How does a growth stone give birth to a baby? In the same process mentioned earlier, in case of heavy rain, the porous growth stone will absorb minerals from Rain Water. Under the action of internal pressure, some cement slag will seep out and adhere to the surface of the growth stone. If Rain Water only drenches on one side of the growth stone, then the cement slag will only seep out from that side, forming a small drum bag. The small drum bag will eventually fall off and become a new growth stone, just like the growth stone "mother" gave birth to the growth stone "baby".

Can the growth stone still walk? Some reports say the growth stone will move. Some scientists say he filmed the movement of the growth stone. According to the scientist, he photographed the movement of the growth stone in two weeks, and he estimated that the growth stone could move up to 0.25 mm at a time. However, many other scientists do not agree with the conclusion that the growth stone will move, but they do not deny that the rise or decrease of soil temperature is the cause of the rock movement.

Perhaps it is the change in the local soil temperature that has prompted the growth stone to move. More evidence is needed, and there is little evidence that the growth stone will move.

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.