Paul Heinrich's 2008 study cut open three of five Klerksdorp 'sphere' specimens. Labs found hematite in one and mostly wavellite in another — no nickel-steel alloy. Radiating, crumbly interiors and a layer running through the outer groove fit concretions grown in sediment. 🧲
Heinrich's 2008 lab study: Klerksdorp 'spheres' are natural mineral concretions
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Key facts
- Small grooved objects found near Klerksdorp, South Africa, had been described as manufactured nickel-steel balls from rock far older than human civilization.
- Geologist Paul Heinrich investigated five specimens for a study published in 2008; three were cut open and laboratory tests identified minerals in samples from two.
- One specimen's minerals were hematite, an iron oxide; the other was mainly wavellite; the tests found no manufactured nickel-steel alloy.
- The cut specimens showed structures radiating outward from their centres with porous, crumbly material.
- A faint layer along the outside groove continued through the interior, indicating the objects grew in successive layers.
- Heinrich explained the grooved forms as concretions: rounded mineral masses that grew within sediment, with growth proceeding more slowly in finer layers and leaving the external groove.
- He interpreted the hematite objects as replacements of earlier pyrite concretions and the wavellite specimens as formed through metamorphism of surrounding rock.
- The collection also includes flattened, disc-shaped and joined specimens, all within the range of natural concretions, and the popular name groups objects with different geological histories.
Sources
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potomacriver.org
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hgms.org
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The Mysterious “Spheres” of Ottosdal, South Africaresearchgate.net
Klerksdorp spheres (cf., Heinrich, 2008) . the Ottosdal spheres, which, though Precambrian, are not artificial (Heinrich 2008) .
Klerksdorp sphereen.wikipedia.org
Klerksdorp spheres are small objects, often spherical to disc-shaped, Heinrich, P.V., 2008, The Mysterious "Spheres" of Ottosdal, South Africa. National Center ...
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