Category Archives: Anomalies (Geological)

Earthquake Lights Revisited – More Evidence Emerging

By | October 15, 2024

Recent research, mostly from Japan and China, adds evidence to support the idea that earthquake lights are a result of electrical interactions between the lithosphere and the atmosphere.

Anomalous claims from Turkey-Syria earthquake 2023

By | February 8, 2023

Many images and videos came out of the affected area in southern and central Turkey and western Syria from the February 6, 2023 series of quakes. Included were MANY inaccuracies, misattributed content, conspiracies, and pseudoscientific claims being shared and promoted by non-experts.

Viral videos of electric rocks

By | January 26, 2023

January 22, 2023 was the height of a wave of social media posts about what people claimed were “electric rocks” found in the DR of Congo. A video showed a close up of someone touching two rocks together and producing a strong electric spark. The clip was widely shared and accumulated millions of views. But it was not as it appeared.

Japan’s “killing stone” splits

By | March 10, 2022

The infamous Sessho-seki, a protected boulder in the volcanic area of Mount Nesu in Japan, has split. The break occurred around March 5, 2022. A legend says the stone was the prison of the evil nine-tailed fox demoness Tamamo-no-Mae and that anyone who touched it died. Some people fear that evil has been released into the world. In reality, the stone had been cracked for a while and held by a rope. The rock likely split from natural weathering processes. The area is known for sulfur hot springs and potentially poisonous gases which may have contributed to the “killing stone” myth.

Booming sounds attributed to karst

By | November 13, 2021

Some residents of Silver Spring Township in southcentral PA began to experience booming noises days after heavy rain deluged the area in September 2021. Township officials consulted geological experts who concluded that the sounds originated underground but were not related to earthquakes. Instead, the karst system was actively moving the water and debris in the subsurface.

Ringing rocks and sonorous stones

By | October 8, 2020

Ringing rocks, rocks that make a bell-like sound when hit with a hammer, are rare but occur across the world. They are seen as magical, mysterious, and scientifically curious. 

Faces in Places: Mimetoliths

By | May 17, 2020

Rock formations that look like faces are called “mimetoliths”. Faces in rock can accrue great cultural significance as land marks. Societies place spiritual meaning into features that appear meaningful because they resemble a human form.

Devil’s Corkscrews

By | December 14, 2019

In the late 19th century, settlers came across bizarre, giant “stone screws” vertically embedded in the ground. Flummoxed as to what could cause such structures, the locals named them the “devil’s corkscrews”. Paleontologists would argue for over nearly a century about what they really were.