Iapetus, the Moqui Marble Moon

Original date of post: 22 March 2005

I saw this photo of Saturn's moon Iapetus,
and Moqui balls were the first thing I thought of.


I'm not the only one who's made this observation: "The distinctive ridge around Saturn’s moon Iapetus bears an eerie similarity to equatorial ridges around concretions on Earth."

"Moqui balls are found mostly in the Navajo sandstone formation in the state of Utah. They can no longer be collected there because it is now part of the Grand Staircase/Escalante National Monument. These mostly smooth, elliptical, or round balls of compacted sandstone are encased in a 'shell' of iron compounds."

And they have iridescent surfaces --
at least, the pair I had possessed that quality.

"These ironstone concretions, known as moqui marbles or moki balls, were used by Native American tribes in the West as power stones and for shamanic journeys. They are still used today for psychic journeys.

"Moqui marbles assist in various psychic work such as shamanic and psychic journeys and astral travel. They strengthen psychic power. They lessen unwanted psychic influences, especially during shamanic or psychic journeying. Moqui marbles are associated with the third eye (brow) chakra."



Perhaps some readers will see these and be reminded of the so-called "blueberries" that have been dug up on Mars:

"In a study published in the June 17 issue of Nature, University of Utah researchers suggest both the Martian and Utah rocks – known as hematite concretions – formed underground when minerals precipitated from flowing groundwater.

"Moqui stones are found in southern Utah in Zion and Capitol Reef national parks, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Snow Canyon State Park and the Moab area. Their diameters range from one-25th of an inch to 8 inches or more. They are known to New Agers as 'moqui marbles.' Some are the size of small blueberries like those on Mars.

[The scientists] believe the Utah concretions formed perhaps 25 million years ago, when minerals precipitated from groundwater flowing through much older Navajo sandstone, the spectacular red rock in southern Utah.

"'Given the similarities between the marbles in Utah and on Mars, additional scientific scrutiny of the Utah concretions and how they form will probably shed further light on the similar phenomenon on Mars,' University of Washington scientist David Catling wrote in a Nature commentary accompanying the University of Utah study.

"The concretions may bear on the search for evidence of past life on Mars because bacteria on Earth can make concretions form more quickly. Chan and colleagues plan to analyze whether there is evidence of past microbial activity in Utah concretions."