Why does it still exist after more than five thousand years

Labatilla

August 4, 2021, 7:23 pm

The magnificent ruins of Stonehenge have captured the imagination of generations. Its purpose, origin, and history have been revealed through the years, thanks to long investigations and new technology allowing entirely new discoveries.

by Infobae

El círculo de piedras de Stonehenge, cuyo propósito sigue siendo un misterio para los científicos pese a haber sido objeto de décadas de investigación, es uno de los sitios más famosos de Gran Bretaña queero aspiring person conestual ex turas quer nature.

The first reference to Stonehenge goes back nearly 900 years, in a legend written by Geoffrey of Monmouth, who tells that Merlin built the monument brought from Ireland to England, and with 15,000 men, the stones of the “Circle of the Dance of the Giants”, known for its “magical” properties and “Therapeutic”.

And now, a new study suggests that this monument may have lasted for a long time due to the unique geochemical composition of the fixed stones.

An international team of scientists analyzed thin slices of a core sample from one of the large sandstone slabs, known as sarsenes, under a microscope.

The specimen, called Philip’s Core, was pulled over 60 years ago and only returned to Britain two years after it had been kept as a souvenir in the United States for decades. Six separate pieces were removed from there. One of them, which is only 67 mm long, was taken by researchers for analysis.

Analysis shows that sarsen is composed primarily of sand-sized quartz grains that are held tightly by an interlocking mosaic of quartz crystals. This explains the stone’s resistance to the elements for the past 5,000 years and why it was an ideal material for building such a monument, according to experts.

“This gives answers to the stone’s resistance to the elements and why it is an ideal material for building monuments,” said University of Brighton geomorphologist David Nash, who led the study published in the journal PLoS ONE.

In a remarkable engineering feat for the Neolithic people, the sarsenes were erected at the site in Wiltshire, England, around 2500 BC. C. Stone 58, one of Sarcen’s vertical giants in central Stonehenge, is about 23 feet (7 meters) high, another 7 feet (2 meters) underground and has an estimated ground weight of 24 tons.

“Access to the stone core 58 was pretty much the holy grail of our investigation,” Nash said. “All previous work on sarsenes at Stonehenge has included samples that were excavated at the site or taken from random stones.”

The researchers used CT scans, X-rays, microscopic analysis, and various geochemical techniques to study the fragments and slices of the core sample; These tests are prohibited on megaliths on the site.

Nash admitted that “this small sample is now probably the most analyzed piece of stone besides moon rocks.”

It’s not clear exactly when the rock formed, although researchers have found that some of the embedded sand grains date to the Mesoproterozoic era, between a thousand and 1.6 billion years ago.

“It is extremely rare for the world to have the opportunity to work with samples of national and international importance,” said Professor Nash. “With the help of organizations such as the British Geological Survey and the Natural History Museum, we have been able to apply a range of cutting edge technologies to Phillip’s Core.”