The sandy landscape of southernUtahare home to a bizarre geologic phenomenon . browned - black ball range in size from a pea to a grapefruit litter the comeupance of the Beehive State ( and other parts of the southwestern United States ) , congregate in large formation that have stumped scientists for decades . These unusual material body , fuck by various names but most usually “ Moqui marbles ” , have existed for millions of years .
The name total from the Hopi Tribe , Naturereports . fit in to legend , the ancestral spirits ( “ moqui ” ) of clan members would visit Earth at nighttime and diddle marbles . The spirits were gone by morning but would leave the wits so as to lease living relatives know they were glad . However , researchhas unwrap the origins of the Moqui marble are a little more terrene . concord to theUtah Geological Survey , the balls are iron compression draw up of iron oxide and sandstone and forged in groundwater that collected underneath million - year - old rock .
Thesandstonethat exists in Utah and its neighboring state is a rust fungus - like color thanks to a microscopically small layer of an smoothing iron oxide call hematite that surround the grains of George Sand . It derives from John Rock deposited some 190 million years ago . However , over time , other sediments covered the grit , leading to the constitution of sandstone . Meanwhile , reducing agents such as acid break up Fe into water course through the porous rock . It is from this groundwater that the Moqui marble were formed .
The wits only became visible after weathering cause the outer layer covering the sandstone to eat at , revealing the sandstone underneath and the atomic number 26 ball they hold . While commonly found in ball-shaped shape – hence the name – they can pass off in other shaping , let in pipe andUFO “ flying dish antenna ” . A study published in 2004 lay the oldest marbles at25 million years oldand found some are as untested as 2 to 5 million year old .
The ball are usually found in the US but similar structures have been give away in other component part of the world , such asMongolia . Perhaps most excitingly , these marble - comparable objects have also been find onMars . Nicknamed Martian " blueberry bush " thanks to their minor , gray - patrician color , some scientists think they are some of the first reading of thehistorical existence of wateron the Red Planet . Anotherstudynoting similarities between Martian blueberry bush and Moqui marble advise they may have formed under an former carbon paper dioxide - rich atmosphere .
