1 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:06,120 Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, and 2 00:00:06,120 --> 00:00:08,480 Speaker 1: there's Chuck and Jerry's here sitting in for Dave. And 3 00:00:08,560 --> 00:00:13,960 Speaker 1: this is short stuff about trovants or trovins or droving. 4 00:00:15,680 --> 00:00:17,720 Speaker 2: I bet it's travant. I don't know why I didn't 5 00:00:17,720 --> 00:00:19,120 Speaker 2: look it up, but I'm gonna go with that. 6 00:00:19,360 --> 00:00:22,040 Speaker 1: It's gotta be. It doesn't matter. No one knows how 7 00:00:22,040 --> 00:00:25,000 Speaker 1: to pronounce it, no one outside of Romania. And the 8 00:00:25,040 --> 00:00:28,760 Speaker 1: reason I just mentioned Romania is because in the Carpathian 9 00:00:28,800 --> 00:00:33,159 Speaker 1: area of Romania, there's a specific kind of rock that 10 00:00:33,240 --> 00:00:36,199 Speaker 1: has captured the imagination of any human who's seen it 11 00:00:36,240 --> 00:00:38,440 Speaker 1: because they are very weird looking. 12 00:00:38,680 --> 00:00:39,320 Speaker 2: Yeah. 13 00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:43,320 Speaker 1: In fact, they look like they're growing smaller rocks out 14 00:00:43,320 --> 00:00:46,400 Speaker 1: of the bigger rocks. Not supposed to happen to anybody 15 00:00:46,479 --> 00:00:49,360 Speaker 1: outside of the field of geology, but they are. And 16 00:00:49,479 --> 00:00:51,559 Speaker 1: so some people are like, these rocks are living, they 17 00:00:51,600 --> 00:00:54,760 Speaker 1: move around, they're gonna they're gonna kill you and your 18 00:00:54,920 --> 00:00:56,840 Speaker 1: entire family if if given the chance. 19 00:00:56,960 --> 00:00:57,960 Speaker 2: Yeah, they have babies. 20 00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:01,400 Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, it's amazing. Did you look up some of 21 00:01:01,440 --> 00:01:02,240 Speaker 1: the pictures of them. 22 00:01:02,360 --> 00:01:08,000 Speaker 2: Yeah, they're awesome. They're pretty smooth looking, they're lumpy. Yeah, 23 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:09,880 Speaker 2: it looks you know, look up a picture of these things. 24 00:01:10,520 --> 00:01:12,959 Speaker 2: You know, not if you're driving, obviously, but so you 25 00:01:12,959 --> 00:01:15,319 Speaker 2: can get it in your mind's eye. They can be little. 26 00:01:15,360 --> 00:01:18,399 Speaker 2: They can be smaller than an inch and just way 27 00:01:18,600 --> 00:01:21,399 Speaker 2: a few grams, or they can be very very large, 28 00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:25,479 Speaker 2: like boulder esque, like fifteen feet high, several tons in weight. 29 00:01:26,880 --> 00:01:29,840 Speaker 2: And people since the eighteenth century have been like, what 30 00:01:29,920 --> 00:01:32,880 Speaker 2: are these things? They look like dinosaur eggs or alien pods? 31 00:01:32,920 --> 00:01:33,679 Speaker 2: What's happening here? 32 00:01:34,080 --> 00:01:37,200 Speaker 1: Yeah, And they were wrong on both accounts. They really 33 00:01:37,240 --> 00:01:41,080 Speaker 1: are rocks. They do grow, they do kind of calve 34 00:01:41,160 --> 00:01:45,440 Speaker 1: off baby rocks, but they're not alive in any sense 35 00:01:45,480 --> 00:01:47,160 Speaker 1: that we understand it. They're rocks. 36 00:01:47,760 --> 00:01:51,760 Speaker 2: That's right. When they started getting serious and we're like, guys, 37 00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:54,320 Speaker 2: can we move past alien pods and dinosaur eggs and 38 00:01:54,400 --> 00:01:55,559 Speaker 2: really try and figure this out. 39 00:01:55,800 --> 00:01:58,000 Speaker 1: I took it to be alien pods, is what people 40 00:01:58,040 --> 00:01:59,400 Speaker 1: are saying on the internet now. 41 00:01:59,640 --> 00:02:02,920 Speaker 2: Well, probably so, because that's where all that stuff takes place. 42 00:02:02,960 --> 00:02:05,720 Speaker 2: But when they finally got serious, they were like, you know, 43 00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:09,400 Speaker 2: what's going on here. This is a concretion, And a 44 00:02:09,440 --> 00:02:12,560 Speaker 2: concretion is something that starts out as a little pebble 45 00:02:12,639 --> 00:02:15,440 Speaker 2: or something or a leaf maybe, and then starts getting 46 00:02:15,480 --> 00:02:19,880 Speaker 2: depositions maybe sandstone, other kinds of grit and minerals washed 47 00:02:19,919 --> 00:02:22,800 Speaker 2: along a river, just building up and sort of cementing, 48 00:02:22,880 --> 00:02:27,480 Speaker 2: almost like a snowball rolling downhill. That is a concretion, yes. 49 00:02:28,080 --> 00:02:31,280 Speaker 1: And in Oslo in two thousand and eight, the International 50 00:02:31,320 --> 00:02:34,400 Speaker 1: Geological Conference congress. 51 00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:36,919 Speaker 2: Man to that place. 52 00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:42,320 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the rocks that they were doing, I'm sure, yeah, 53 00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:45,360 Speaker 1: and they said, no, we don't think it's a concretion 54 00:02:45,440 --> 00:02:47,600 Speaker 1: at all. I don't know who they were scolding, because 55 00:02:47,639 --> 00:02:49,359 Speaker 1: I'm sure all the members were the ones who came 56 00:02:49,440 --> 00:02:52,280 Speaker 1: up with the idea that it was a concretion. But 57 00:02:52,400 --> 00:02:56,120 Speaker 1: they said, no, this is different than that. A concretion 58 00:02:56,400 --> 00:02:59,560 Speaker 1: is a rock where you have a nucleus and then 59 00:02:59,680 --> 00:03:03,720 Speaker 1: over time sediments are deposited over it and it grows 60 00:03:03,720 --> 00:03:06,840 Speaker 1: and grows and grows. It's understandable why people said that 61 00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:10,560 Speaker 1: trovants were concretions for a very long time. But then 62 00:03:10,600 --> 00:03:13,280 Speaker 1: somebody thought to cut one open, and when they did, 63 00:03:13,360 --> 00:03:18,560 Speaker 1: they said, there's no nucleus here. And with a typical 64 00:03:19,320 --> 00:03:22,920 Speaker 1: concretion rock, the sediments are whatever got attracted to it, 65 00:03:22,960 --> 00:03:24,840 Speaker 1: so it's made up of a bunch of different stuff. 66 00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:29,200 Speaker 1: Turns out trovants are made entirely of sandstone, and in 67 00:03:29,240 --> 00:03:34,080 Speaker 1: particular they're made of calcium carbonate sandstone. So they're like, 68 00:03:34,120 --> 00:03:37,960 Speaker 1: these are not concretions. What are they? We're not entirely certain, 69 00:03:38,160 --> 00:03:41,200 Speaker 1: but we're going to take a stab at explaining them. 70 00:03:41,400 --> 00:03:45,120 Speaker 2: Yeah, And they closed that session of the International Geological 71 00:03:45,120 --> 00:03:51,160 Speaker 2: Congress and Oslo by chanting open bar, open bar, and. 72 00:03:51,120 --> 00:03:51,920 Speaker 1: They all got busy. 73 00:03:52,520 --> 00:03:57,560 Speaker 2: So they in Oslo they hypothesize that the minerals were 74 00:03:58,240 --> 00:04:01,760 Speaker 2: carried by a prehistoric river along these little sandy sediments 75 00:04:01,800 --> 00:04:05,000 Speaker 2: and formed a kind of a slurry solution, like you said, 76 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:09,600 Speaker 2: of mainly calcium carbonate. Along with calcium carbonate, you can 77 00:04:09,640 --> 00:04:13,280 Speaker 2: also get sandstone from iron oxide and quartz, but in 78 00:04:13,280 --> 00:04:15,680 Speaker 2: this case the sandstone is calcium carbonate. 79 00:04:16,320 --> 00:04:20,000 Speaker 1: Yeah, precisely. And so they figured out, okay, some sort 80 00:04:20,040 --> 00:04:22,920 Speaker 1: of compression took place, the force of gravity kind of 81 00:04:22,920 --> 00:04:26,960 Speaker 1: pushed these things together. And then apparently they were like 82 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:32,799 Speaker 1: even more pushed together by earthquakes that took place back 83 00:04:32,839 --> 00:04:37,160 Speaker 1: in I think the Middle Miocene sub epoch, which as 84 00:04:37,200 --> 00:04:40,520 Speaker 1: everyone knows, is about five point three million years ago, 85 00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:43,440 Speaker 1: and they smushed the sandstone together. And if you look 86 00:04:43,480 --> 00:04:45,680 Speaker 1: at a lot of the trovons, especially the parts that 87 00:04:45,720 --> 00:04:48,360 Speaker 1: are coming out of the ground. Yeah, it just looks 88 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:52,279 Speaker 1: like a smushed normal rock, right, like pretty large. But 89 00:04:52,600 --> 00:04:56,200 Speaker 1: it doesn't it doesn't look weird. What makes it look 90 00:04:56,240 --> 00:05:00,359 Speaker 1: weird is the spherical shape rocks growing out of the 91 00:05:00,400 --> 00:05:03,880 Speaker 1: other rocks. And that actually has to do with the 92 00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:06,760 Speaker 1: way that these rocks actually grow. And I say, Chuck, 93 00:05:07,680 --> 00:05:09,440 Speaker 1: we take a break and we come back and talk 94 00:05:09,480 --> 00:05:11,640 Speaker 1: about how they grow after this. 95 00:05:12,200 --> 00:05:42,320 Speaker 2: Let's do it. So another little oddity here we have 96 00:05:42,360 --> 00:05:45,320 Speaker 2: to talk about is the fact that these things secrete cement. 97 00:05:46,680 --> 00:05:48,360 Speaker 2: And this is sort of what lends people to think 98 00:05:48,440 --> 00:05:51,800 Speaker 2: like these things are alive. It's after a big rain. 99 00:05:51,960 --> 00:05:55,240 Speaker 2: They will absorb the minerals from that rain, and then 100 00:05:55,279 --> 00:05:58,080 Speaker 2: those minerals come in contact with the chemicals that are 101 00:05:58,080 --> 00:06:01,360 Speaker 2: already in that stone, that that calcium carbonate and the 102 00:06:01,400 --> 00:06:05,640 Speaker 2: other stuff, and there's a pressurized reaction that makes the 103 00:06:05,720 --> 00:06:08,919 Speaker 2: rock grow. It grows in girth, and that sandstone is 104 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:12,120 Speaker 2: very porous, and so it's those places in between it's 105 00:06:12,120 --> 00:06:13,920 Speaker 2: not happening, like the whole thing's not growing at once. 106 00:06:13,960 --> 00:06:17,480 Speaker 2: It'll be like a little pocket where this stuff, you know, 107 00:06:17,920 --> 00:06:21,960 Speaker 2: gets lodged and expands, and then it literally grows off 108 00:06:22,120 --> 00:06:24,360 Speaker 2: little pieces and they can fall off. And that's when 109 00:06:24,360 --> 00:06:26,039 Speaker 2: people are like, look, it had a little rock. 110 00:06:26,080 --> 00:06:29,760 Speaker 1: Baby, It had a baby. Yeah, So I mean that's it. 111 00:06:29,839 --> 00:06:32,440 Speaker 1: That's how they grow rocks. A chemical reaction that creates 112 00:06:32,480 --> 00:06:34,760 Speaker 1: pressure in the rock that's so strong and they're so 113 00:06:34,880 --> 00:06:37,400 Speaker 1: porous that it can actually bubble up, and then over time, 114 00:06:37,440 --> 00:06:39,000 Speaker 1: as it grows and grows and grows, it can take 115 00:06:39,040 --> 00:06:43,520 Speaker 1: on a spherical shape. Right, So that's pretty amazing. What 116 00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:45,400 Speaker 1: would be more amazing is if you could see this 117 00:06:45,480 --> 00:06:48,359 Speaker 1: happen in real time, but you can't because the human 118 00:06:48,400 --> 00:06:51,599 Speaker 1: lifespan is fairly short compared to how long it would 119 00:06:51,640 --> 00:06:54,119 Speaker 1: take to watch a trovont grow. 120 00:06:54,200 --> 00:06:58,680 Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, I think the deposition rate is about an 121 00:06:58,720 --> 00:07:02,960 Speaker 2: inch and a half maybe a couple inches every year. No, 122 00:07:03,440 --> 00:07:07,680 Speaker 2: every hundred years, no, every five hundred years, no, every 123 00:07:07,720 --> 00:07:10,320 Speaker 2: thousand years. Yes, yeah, so an inch and a half 124 00:07:10,360 --> 00:07:14,000 Speaker 2: to two inches every one thousand years. That has not 125 00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:17,320 Speaker 2: stopped certain patient people from sitting there and looking at 126 00:07:17,320 --> 00:07:18,280 Speaker 2: them from a long time. 127 00:07:18,120 --> 00:07:21,000 Speaker 1: Though, right, Yeah, for sure. There was one researcher who 128 00:07:21,200 --> 00:07:24,840 Speaker 1: said that they filmed travants for two weeks and said 129 00:07:24,880 --> 00:07:27,960 Speaker 1: that not that they were growing, but that they were moving. 130 00:07:28,120 --> 00:07:30,240 Speaker 1: This is another thing about it too, People say these 131 00:07:30,320 --> 00:07:33,560 Speaker 1: rocks move. And again, this is in Romania, in the 132 00:07:33,600 --> 00:07:36,559 Speaker 1: Carpathian region. People have lived there for a really long time. 133 00:07:36,840 --> 00:07:39,080 Speaker 1: They've lived around these rocks for a really long time. 134 00:07:39,160 --> 00:07:41,760 Speaker 1: They've been observing them for a really long time. So 135 00:07:42,440 --> 00:07:44,480 Speaker 1: you can't exactly poop poo some of the things that 136 00:07:44,520 --> 00:07:48,800 Speaker 1: they've observed about these very special rocks. Yeah, and apparently 137 00:07:48,920 --> 00:07:52,160 Speaker 1: walking or moving is part of them. So this researcher 138 00:07:52,200 --> 00:07:55,559 Speaker 1: went and said, I filmed this thing moving at tenth 139 00:07:55,560 --> 00:07:59,000 Speaker 1: of an inch two and a half millimeters in two weeks, 140 00:07:59,600 --> 00:08:03,160 Speaker 1: and and don't ask me for the film or any fallout. 141 00:08:04,320 --> 00:08:06,200 Speaker 2: Yeah, he's like, so what do you think of that? 142 00:08:06,360 --> 00:08:09,920 Speaker 2: And everyone's like, oh boy, this guy doesn't know there's 143 00:08:09,960 --> 00:08:11,960 Speaker 2: an open bar in the back right. 144 00:08:12,720 --> 00:08:15,240 Speaker 1: So the thing is they're not discounting it fully that 145 00:08:15,320 --> 00:08:18,320 Speaker 1: these things can move, but the rocks wouldn't be moving, say, 146 00:08:18,440 --> 00:08:21,880 Speaker 1: like the heating and cooling of the soil could cause 147 00:08:21,880 --> 00:08:24,679 Speaker 1: some sort of movement of the rocks moving them along. 148 00:08:25,080 --> 00:08:28,280 Speaker 1: And there are rocks that that move. They don't move 149 00:08:28,320 --> 00:08:30,520 Speaker 1: by their own locomotion. There's not a rock in the 150 00:08:30,560 --> 00:08:34,120 Speaker 1: world that moves by itself, even if it's rolling down hills, 151 00:08:34,240 --> 00:08:38,199 Speaker 1: it's under the force of gravity. But there are rocks 152 00:08:38,320 --> 00:08:41,880 Speaker 1: in uh oh, Death Valley. I think the sailing stones. 153 00:08:41,920 --> 00:08:42,600 Speaker 1: Have you seen them? 154 00:08:43,800 --> 00:08:45,760 Speaker 2: Yeah? I feel like we talked about those in a video. 155 00:08:45,800 --> 00:08:47,880 Speaker 2: It sounded familiar, or maybe I just had heard of them. 156 00:08:48,440 --> 00:08:51,640 Speaker 1: But they they leave a track behind them. They are 157 00:08:51,720 --> 00:08:54,880 Speaker 1: definitely moving, yeah, and they're too big for a human 158 00:08:54,920 --> 00:08:57,200 Speaker 1: to push as like a prank or a joke. Like 159 00:08:57,280 --> 00:09:01,959 Speaker 1: the crop circles. Were figured out that the very thin 160 00:09:02,120 --> 00:09:04,800 Speaker 1: layers of ice form on the floor of Death Valley 161 00:09:04,880 --> 00:09:09,680 Speaker 1: sometimes and as it melts, it breaks into little sheets 162 00:09:09,720 --> 00:09:12,479 Speaker 1: that actually kind of move the rocks along for distances. 163 00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:17,679 Speaker 2: Amazing. Another pretty cool thing that they found out in 164 00:09:17,840 --> 00:09:20,839 Speaker 2: Oslo where else is they're like, hey, how do we 165 00:09:20,920 --> 00:09:23,840 Speaker 2: explain the fact that we have found these fossils in here? 166 00:09:23,840 --> 00:09:27,240 Speaker 2: Though these marine fossils, there's bivalves in here, there's gastropod 167 00:09:27,280 --> 00:09:30,000 Speaker 2: fossils sometimes, And they said, well, the best we can 168 00:09:30,040 --> 00:09:32,560 Speaker 2: come up with, and this makes total sense, is that 169 00:09:32,640 --> 00:09:34,560 Speaker 2: the area where they're found used to be an ancient 170 00:09:34,600 --> 00:09:38,440 Speaker 2: marine environment. Because they're finding those fossils in there and 171 00:09:38,559 --> 00:09:41,559 Speaker 2: also that calcium carbonate and we've kind of been holding 172 00:09:41,600 --> 00:09:44,840 Speaker 2: onto this till the end. That is the essential ingredient 173 00:09:44,880 --> 00:09:47,280 Speaker 2: in marine shells. So it seems pretty clear it was 174 00:09:47,320 --> 00:09:49,680 Speaker 2: probably a marine environment in ancient times. 175 00:09:50,400 --> 00:09:54,520 Speaker 1: Boom, Pretty cool the fact of the podcast. 176 00:09:54,760 --> 00:09:57,080 Speaker 2: Yeah, and there most of them are found it just 177 00:09:57,240 --> 00:10:00,600 Speaker 2: not even just Romania, but this one sand court, right. 178 00:10:01,200 --> 00:10:03,400 Speaker 1: Yeah, I've seen both. I've seen them that you can 179 00:10:03,400 --> 00:10:06,720 Speaker 1: find them around the Carpathia region, but there's definitely a 180 00:10:06,920 --> 00:10:11,360 Speaker 1: huge population of them in what's now the Trouvons Museum 181 00:10:11,480 --> 00:10:16,280 Speaker 1: Natural Reserve in Valca County, Romania. And there's a village 182 00:10:16,280 --> 00:10:20,760 Speaker 1: in particular, Otosani Village, which is very well known for it, 183 00:10:20,880 --> 00:10:23,080 Speaker 1: so much so that I think that's where the idea 184 00:10:23,120 --> 00:10:26,080 Speaker 1: that they can only be found there comes from. But 185 00:10:26,120 --> 00:10:28,240 Speaker 1: there's still I mean, you're not going to find them 186 00:10:28,240 --> 00:10:31,680 Speaker 1: in like Peru or Zimbabwe or something right there, just 187 00:10:31,800 --> 00:10:35,920 Speaker 1: in this very limited area of the world in Romania. 188 00:10:35,200 --> 00:10:38,400 Speaker 2: That's right, So shout out to the Otasani village and 189 00:10:38,520 --> 00:10:40,920 Speaker 2: the other one is the Costesty Village. 190 00:10:41,240 --> 00:10:45,000 Speaker 1: Very nice, Chuck, And I guess since I said very nice, 191 00:10:45,080 --> 00:10:46,240 Speaker 1: I don't have anything else to you. 192 00:10:47,240 --> 00:10:49,720 Speaker 2: No, we should just let people know they're protected, like 193 00:10:49,760 --> 00:10:51,480 Speaker 2: so you can't go and break them and run off 194 00:10:51,480 --> 00:10:53,360 Speaker 2: with them. UNESCO is protecting these things. 195 00:10:53,400 --> 00:10:54,440 Speaker 1: Now, do not do that. 196 00:10:54,760 --> 00:10:55,440 Speaker 2: Yeah, don't do that. 197 00:10:56,800 --> 00:10:58,199 Speaker 1: Leave nature alone. 198 00:10:59,240 --> 00:11:01,560 Speaker 2: Yeah that's right. But I have nothing else aside from that. 199 00:11:01,880 --> 00:11:03,120 Speaker 1: Okay, short stuff is that? 200 00:11:06,720 --> 00:11:09,600 Speaker 2: Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio. For 201 00:11:09,679 --> 00:11:13,880 Speaker 2: more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 202 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:15,840 Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.