In a spirit of goodwill at this Christmas season, and specially for Kostas, here is a splendid picture from the wonderful "Glaciers Online" web site. It shows a granite obelisk in the Victoria Dry Valley in Antarctica -- it couldn't have been put there by Neolithic tribesmen from Wiltshire, since nobody reckons that they strayed THAT far from home, no matter how good their coracles were, but I suppose it could have been put in place by a super-race of Emperor Penguins, who are known for their incredible achievements (David Attenborough and all that).
On the other hand we could go for the boring explanation and say that this isn't far from a glacier snout, and that this is an unusual morainic block projecting up from an extensive area of moraine which has (mostly) been covered at a later date by aeolian or windblown deposits. Very mundane. Sorry Kostas -- I couldn't find any nice pictures of blocks like this which are tastefully arranged in circles or rows......
Happy Christmas!
Brian , There is a similar "obelisk " in the Eldgjá gorge in Iceland ,very Dr Who ,2001ish .
ReplyDeleteShades of the film "2001: A Space Odyssey", by Somerset's own Arthur C Clarke. Remember the megaliths on the Moon and on Mars? Rigsby from "Rising Damp" made a very convincing astronaut.
ReplyDeleteBrian you write,
ReplyDelete“Sorry Kostas -- I couldn't find any nice pictures of blocks like this which are tastefully arranged in circles or rows......”
Let me suggest you look at Brittany and Stonehenge!
The granite obelisk does look naturally defiant!
Kostas