Saturday, October 16, 2010

A Saturday Night Mystery Photo

Back home from today's field study course in the western Sierra Nevada. The rock is marble of the late Paleozoic Calaveras Complex...what's going on here??

8 comments:

  1. Looks like either Native or natural made water pockets.

    Hope you got to visit the marble caves.

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  2. What's going on here? At the moment you took this image, not much. But in the past, this was one of the most sacred gathering places of the Miwok/Miwuk peoples. Those are mortar holes, and that is Chaw-Se Indian Grinding Rock. There are over 1000 grinding or mortar holes.

    It's one of my favorite places in the spring.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/ambitious_wench/487467668/

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  3. When I was a kid, my sisters and I would range all over the mountains east of San Diego, looking for grinding holes. I've always felt a connection with the past there, imagining the social life at these gathering places. Somehow, imagining women grinding and chatting just connects me back in time. Parclair

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  4. I learn something new everyday. I did not know that there were grinding holes made by indians. Makes sense I just never knew. That is really pretty cool. I will have to go visit that place.

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  5. I know(raising hand) it is for making swiss cheese:)Or they have super gophers and those are their holes.

    Doug N

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  6. Those remind me of the cup-rocks in Finland and Estonia, where a group of people (not sure who, sorry) carved these ornate cup-holders into rocks. I heard a talk on these back in Finland, but my Finnish was not stellar at the time, so most of the time I was trying to figure out why the heck they were talking about cup-rocks and if I was translating that right.

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  7. Its where the aliens make the "moon cheese", I asked someone that had been to the oregon caves and they think it was flow stone.

    doug N

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  8. It didn't take very long for you all to solve the mystery of the day! The story continues at http://geotripper.blogspot.com/2010/10/other-california-its-real-grindchawse.html

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