WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Trovants

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<v Speaker 1>Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, and

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<v Speaker 1>there's Chuck and Jerry's here sitting in for Dave. And

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<v Speaker 1>this is short stuff about trovants or trovins or droving.

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<v Speaker 2>I bet it's travant. I don't know why I didn't

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<v Speaker 2>look it up, but I'm gonna go with that.

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<v Speaker 1>It's gotta be. It doesn't matter. No one knows how

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<v Speaker 1>to pronounce it, no one outside of Romania. And the

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<v Speaker 1>reason I just mentioned Romania is because in the Carpathian

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<v Speaker 1>area of Romania, there's a specific kind of rock that

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<v Speaker 1>has captured the imagination of any human who's seen it

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<v Speaker 1>because they are very weird looking.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

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<v Speaker 1>In fact, they look like they're growing smaller rocks out

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<v Speaker 1>of the bigger rocks. Not supposed to happen to anybody

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<v Speaker 1>outside of the field of geology, but they are. And

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<v Speaker 1>so some people are like, these rocks are living, they

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<v Speaker 1>move around, they're gonna they're gonna kill you and your

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<v Speaker 1>entire family if if given the chance.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, they have babies.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, Yeah, it's amazing. Did you look up some of

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<v Speaker 1>the pictures of them.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, they're awesome. They're pretty smooth looking, they're lumpy. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 2>it looks you know, look up a picture of these things.

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<v Speaker 2>You know, not if you're driving, obviously, but so you

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<v Speaker 2>can get it in your mind's eye. They can be little.

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<v Speaker 2>They can be smaller than an inch and just way

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<v Speaker 2>a few grams, or they can be very very large,

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<v Speaker 2>like boulder esque, like fifteen feet high, several tons in weight.

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<v Speaker 2>And people since the eighteenth century have been like, what

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<v Speaker 2>are these things? They look like dinosaur eggs or alien pods?

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<v Speaker 2>What's happening here?

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, And they were wrong on both accounts. They really

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<v Speaker 1>are rocks. They do grow, they do kind of calve

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<v Speaker 1>off baby rocks, but they're not alive in any sense

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<v Speaker 1>that we understand it. They're rocks.

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<v Speaker 2>That's right. When they started getting serious and we're like, guys,

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<v Speaker 2>can we move past alien pods and dinosaur eggs and

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<v Speaker 2>really try and figure this out.

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<v Speaker 1>I took it to be alien pods, is what people

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<v Speaker 1>are saying on the internet now.

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<v Speaker 2>Well, probably so, because that's where all that stuff takes place.

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<v Speaker 2>But when they finally got serious, they were like, you know,

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<v Speaker 2>what's going on here. This is a concretion, And a

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<v Speaker 2>concretion is something that starts out as a little pebble

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<v Speaker 2>or something or a leaf maybe, and then starts getting

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<v Speaker 2>depositions maybe sandstone, other kinds of grit and minerals washed

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<v Speaker 2>along a river, just building up and sort of cementing,

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<v Speaker 2>almost like a snowball rolling downhill. That is a concretion, yes.

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<v Speaker 1>And in Oslo in two thousand and eight, the International

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<v Speaker 1>Geological Conference congress.

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<v Speaker 2>Man to that place.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's the rocks that they were doing, I'm sure, yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>and they said, no, we don't think it's a concretion

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<v Speaker 1>at all. I don't know who they were scolding, because

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<v Speaker 1>I'm sure all the members were the ones who came

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<v Speaker 1>up with the idea that it was a concretion. But

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<v Speaker 1>they said, no, this is different than that. A concretion

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<v Speaker 1>is a rock where you have a nucleus and then

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<v Speaker 1>over time sediments are deposited over it and it grows

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<v Speaker 1>and grows and grows. It's understandable why people said that

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<v Speaker 1>trovants were concretions for a very long time. But then

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<v Speaker 1>somebody thought to cut one open, and when they did,

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<v Speaker 1>they said, there's no nucleus here. And with a typical

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<v Speaker 1>concretion rock, the sediments are whatever got attracted to it,

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<v Speaker 1>so it's made up of a bunch of different stuff.

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<v Speaker 1>Turns out trovants are made entirely of sandstone, and in

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<v Speaker 1>particular they're made of calcium carbonate sandstone. So they're like,

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<v Speaker 1>these are not concretions. What are they? We're not entirely certain,

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<v Speaker 1>but we're going to take a stab at explaining them.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, And they closed that session of the International Geological

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<v Speaker 2>Congress and Oslo by chanting open bar, open bar, and.

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<v Speaker 1>They all got busy.

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<v Speaker 2>So they in Oslo they hypothesize that the minerals were

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<v Speaker 2>carried by a prehistoric river along these little sandy sediments

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<v Speaker 2>and formed a kind of a slurry solution, like you said,

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<v Speaker 2>of mainly calcium carbonate. Along with calcium carbonate, you can

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<v Speaker 2>also get sandstone from iron oxide and quartz, but in

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<v Speaker 2>this case the sandstone is calcium carbonate.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, precisely. And so they figured out, okay, some sort

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<v Speaker 1>of compression took place, the force of gravity kind of

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<v Speaker 1>pushed these things together. And then apparently they were like

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<v Speaker 1>even more pushed together by earthquakes that took place back

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<v Speaker 1>in I think the Middle Miocene sub epoch, which as

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<v Speaker 1>everyone knows, is about five point three million years ago,

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<v Speaker 1>and they smushed the sandstone together. And if you look

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<v Speaker 1>at a lot of the trovons, especially the parts that

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<v Speaker 1>are coming out of the ground. Yeah, it just looks

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<v Speaker 1>like a smushed normal rock, right, like pretty large. But

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<v Speaker 1>it doesn't it doesn't look weird. What makes it look

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<v Speaker 1>weird is the spherical shape rocks growing out of the

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<v Speaker 1>other rocks. And that actually has to do with the

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<v Speaker 1>way that these rocks actually grow. And I say, Chuck,

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<v Speaker 1>we take a break and we come back and talk

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<v Speaker 1>about how they grow after this.

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<v Speaker 2>Let's do it. So another little oddity here we have

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<v Speaker 2>to talk about is the fact that these things secrete cement.

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<v Speaker 2>And this is sort of what lends people to think

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<v Speaker 2>like these things are alive. It's after a big rain.

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<v Speaker 2>They will absorb the minerals from that rain, and then

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<v Speaker 2>those minerals come in contact with the chemicals that are

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<v Speaker 2>already in that stone, that that calcium carbonate and the

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<v Speaker 2>other stuff, and there's a pressurized reaction that makes the

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<v Speaker 2>rock grow. It grows in girth, and that sandstone is

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<v Speaker 2>very porous, and so it's those places in between it's

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<v Speaker 2>not happening, like the whole thing's not growing at once.

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<v Speaker 2>It'll be like a little pocket where this stuff, you know,

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<v Speaker 2>gets lodged and expands, and then it literally grows off

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<v Speaker 2>little pieces and they can fall off. And that's when

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<v Speaker 2>people are like, look, it had a little rock.

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<v Speaker 1>Baby, It had a baby. Yeah, So I mean that's it.

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<v Speaker 1>That's how they grow rocks. A chemical reaction that creates

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<v Speaker 1>pressure in the rock that's so strong and they're so

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<v Speaker 1>porous that it can actually bubble up, and then over time,

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<v Speaker 1>as it grows and grows and grows, it can take

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<v Speaker 1>on a spherical shape. Right, So that's pretty amazing. What

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<v Speaker 1>would be more amazing is if you could see this

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<v Speaker 1>happen in real time, but you can't because the human

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<v Speaker 1>lifespan is fairly short compared to how long it would

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<v Speaker 1>take to watch a trovont grow.

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<v Speaker 2>Right, Yeah, I think the deposition rate is about an

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<v Speaker 2>inch and a half maybe a couple inches every year. No,

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<v Speaker 2>every hundred years, no, every five hundred years, no, every

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<v Speaker 2>thousand years. Yes, yeah, so an inch and a half

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<v Speaker 2>to two inches every one thousand years. That has not

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<v Speaker 2>stopped certain patient people from sitting there and looking at

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<v Speaker 2>them from a long time.

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<v Speaker 1>Though, right, Yeah, for sure. There was one researcher who

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<v Speaker 1>said that they filmed travants for two weeks and said

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<v Speaker 1>that not that they were growing, but that they were moving.

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<v Speaker 1>This is another thing about it too, People say these

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<v Speaker 1>rocks move. And again, this is in Romania, in the

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<v Speaker 1>Carpathian region. People have lived there for a really long time.

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<v Speaker 1>They've lived around these rocks for a really long time.

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<v Speaker 1>They've been observing them for a really long time. So

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<v Speaker 1>you can't exactly poop poo some of the things that

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<v Speaker 1>they've observed about these very special rocks. Yeah, and apparently

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<v Speaker 1>walking or moving is part of them. So this researcher

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<v Speaker 1>went and said, I filmed this thing moving at tenth

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<v Speaker 1>of an inch two and a half millimeters in two weeks,

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<v Speaker 1>and and don't ask me for the film or any fallout.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, he's like, so what do you think of that?

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<v Speaker 2>And everyone's like, oh boy, this guy doesn't know there's

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<v Speaker 2>an open bar in the back right.

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<v Speaker 1>So the thing is they're not discounting it fully that

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<v Speaker 1>these things can move, but the rocks wouldn't be moving, say,

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<v Speaker 1>like the heating and cooling of the soil could cause

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<v Speaker 1>some sort of movement of the rocks moving them along.

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<v Speaker 1>And there are rocks that that move. They don't move

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<v Speaker 1>by their own locomotion. There's not a rock in the

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<v Speaker 1>world that moves by itself, even if it's rolling down hills,

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<v Speaker 1>it's under the force of gravity. But there are rocks

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<v Speaker 1>in uh oh, Death Valley. I think the sailing stones.

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<v Speaker 1>Have you seen them?

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah? I feel like we talked about those in a video.

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<v Speaker 2>It sounded familiar, or maybe I just had heard of them.

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<v Speaker 1>But they they leave a track behind them. They are

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<v Speaker 1>definitely moving, yeah, and they're too big for a human

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<v Speaker 1>to push as like a prank or a joke. Like

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<v Speaker 1>the crop circles. Were figured out that the very thin

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<v Speaker 1>layers of ice form on the floor of Death Valley

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<v Speaker 1>sometimes and as it melts, it breaks into little sheets

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<v Speaker 1>that actually kind of move the rocks along for distances.

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<v Speaker 2>Amazing. Another pretty cool thing that they found out in

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<v Speaker 2>Oslo where else is they're like, hey, how do we

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<v Speaker 2>explain the fact that we have found these fossils in here?

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<v Speaker 2>Though these marine fossils, there's bivalves in here, there's gastropod

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<v Speaker 2>fossils sometimes, And they said, well, the best we can

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<v Speaker 2>come up with, and this makes total sense, is that

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<v Speaker 2>the area where they're found used to be an ancient

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<v Speaker 2>marine environment. Because they're finding those fossils in there and

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<v Speaker 2>also that calcium carbonate and we've kind of been holding

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<v Speaker 2>onto this till the end. That is the essential ingredient

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<v Speaker 2>in marine shells. So it seems pretty clear it was

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<v Speaker 2>probably a marine environment in ancient times.

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<v Speaker 1>Boom, Pretty cool the fact of the podcast.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and there most of them are found it just

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<v Speaker 2>not even just Romania, but this one sand court, right.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I've seen both. I've seen them that you can

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<v Speaker 1>find them around the Carpathia region, but there's definitely a

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<v Speaker 1>huge population of them in what's now the Trouvons Museum

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<v Speaker 1>Natural Reserve in Valca County, Romania. And there's a village

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<v Speaker 1>in particular, Otosani Village, which is very well known for it,

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<v Speaker 1>so much so that I think that's where the idea

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<v Speaker 1>that they can only be found there comes from. But

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<v Speaker 1>there's still I mean, you're not going to find them

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<v Speaker 1>in like Peru or Zimbabwe or something right there, just

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<v Speaker 1>in this very limited area of the world in Romania.

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<v Speaker 2>That's right, So shout out to the Otasani village and

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<v Speaker 2>the other one is the Costesty Village.

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<v Speaker 1>Very nice, Chuck, And I guess since I said very nice,

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<v Speaker 1>I don't have anything else to you.

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<v Speaker 2>No, we should just let people know they're protected, like

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<v Speaker 2>so you can't go and break them and run off

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<v Speaker 2>with them. UNESCO is protecting these things.

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<v Speaker 1>Now, do not do that.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, don't do that.

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<v Speaker 1>Leave nature alone.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah that's right. But I have nothing else aside from that.

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<v Speaker 1>Okay, short stuff is that?

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