October 1, 2019 Comments Off on Champ Island’s mystery stone spheres Views: 689 Urban Trekker

Hundreds of miles north of the Russian mainland lies the Franz Josef archipelago, one of the remotest terrains on Earth. More than 150 islands comprise the archipelago, roughly divided into three factions.

Champ Island lies within the Zichy faction, which is the central and biggest group of islands–its name a tribute to William C. Champ who led a relief operation that looked for the Fiala Zeigler polar expedition (an Arctic expedition that ended in disaster some 116 years ago).

While there is at least some historical notion to this secluded, cold island away from city life civilization, what makes it truly intriguing is its out-of-this-world stone spheres. Champ Island’s obviously barren landscapes are graced with sandstone round balls. Some of these are pretty small and you can hold them in your palm, but others reach up to six meters in height. These mystery stone spheres make the island look like a sci-fi movie set.

The barren scapes of the island decorated with a perfect stone sphere, Photo credit: Dmitrijshh – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

The stone spheres have been called “monster marbles” and “footballs of the Gods.” They look so perfect that it’s easy to think they are not the work of nature, but that of man. The only issue is that this island has never been populated by humans.

There is some consensus that Champ Island’s stone spheres were created by nature, however, it is not entirely clear how. The spheres may have certainly formed over a period of several thousand years by processes of crystallization and magnetization of grains of sand onto crystals, according to experts from the Arctic Federal University. The process may have resulted in solid spherical structures such as the ones found on this island.

A stone sphere in Champ Island, Photo credit: Polarstar, CC BY-SA 3.0

According to Quark Expeditions, which regularly carries polar expedition and has some strong icebreaker ships in its fleet, the balls may be concretions, accumulated in a mass of sediment.

Concretions form when water brings cementing sediments which eventually stick to organic matters such as fossils and shells. The interaction between the two substances is pure chemistry, and one that gives spherical shapes, similarly like pearls are formed.

Traces of civilization so north? Nagurskoye is Russia’s northernmost military base, part of the Franz Josef archipelago, Photo credit: Mil.ru, CC BY 4.0

The island encompasses an area of 372 square kilometers (144 square miles) and has hundreds of these spherical forms since no humans have ever lived there. Similar forms have been found on other islands around the world, included the nation island of New Zealand.

The Franz Josef archipelago is populated only by Russian military personnel. It falls in the domain of the country’s northernmost Arkhangelsk Oblast. 85% of the archipelago is glaciated but that percentage is expected to decrease as global heating accelerates.

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Tags: Champ Island, Franz Josef archipelago, remote places, Russia