# Never heard of these stone formations before

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/never-heard-of-these-stone-formations-before/745214>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [February 5, 2016, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/never-heard-of-these-stone-formations-before/745214 "2016-02-05T09:19:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2016, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/never-heard-of-these-stone-formations-before/745214/1 "2016-02-05T09:19:30Z")

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Moqui marbles in Utah. They seem to be the end-result of spherical weathering. Note their distribution along the joints in the sandstone. Looks like a good place to conduct a stoning.

[http://i.livescience.com/images/i/000/070/309/original/gsa-cover.JPG?1411070934](http://i.livescience.com/images/i/000/070/309/original/gsa-cover.JPG?1411070934)

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**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2016, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/never-heard-of-these-stone-formations-before/745214/2 "2016-02-05T13:43:43Z")

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Or getting stoned. 🙂

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2016, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/never-heard-of-these-stone-formations-before/745214/3 "2016-02-05T13:54:05Z")

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That’s very weird. I never heard of them or saw them in my years in Utah, and I’ve hiked through many of those sandstone areas. The article (and others I checked online) didn’t give the locations of the Moqui beds.  
The picture the OP posts shows circular voids in the bed of Moqui Marbles (Not all such pictures do – [How Utah's Fantastical Moqui Marbles Formed | Live Science](http://www.livescience.com/47936-how-moqui-marbles-form.html) ), which looks similar tro circles caused by “frost sorting”:

> **[SwissEduc - Glaciers online - Arctic Islands](https://www.swisseduc.ch/glaciers/arctic-islands/arctic-06-en.html?id=2)**
>
> Arctic Islands

> **[Frost sorted patterned ground: A review](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0033589476900387)**
>
> Sorted circles, polygons, and stripes are reported from Alaska, Greenland, Baffin Island, Antarctica, and New Hampshire. From these studies and key re…