Footballs of the Gods
The uninhabited Champ Island, part of the Franz Joseph archipelago in the Arctic Circle, is littered with giant stone spheres up to two metres (6.6ft) in diameter which visitors have nicknamed “Footballs of the Gods”. The massive globes resemble those found in Costa Rica, which are known to have been made by humans between 600 and the Spanish conquest in 1550. There is no evidence though of any civilisation, or even human occupation, on Champ Island, nor is any considered likely due to its hostile climate, and scientists cannot agree how the huge balls were formed. Nearby Heiss Island was found last year to contain similar but much smaller stone balls the size of bullets or cannon balls, but they have not helped identify the origin of the Champ Island “footballs” with seemingly every geologist having his or her own theory. Australian geologist Sepp Fridhubera believes the rounded shapes of the rocks point to an underwater origin, claiming that they have an organic core at the centre: “I believe that they were formed in sea water, in soft deposits from the remains of shells that once drowned and got stuck in the sandy bottom.” Others point to a different sedimentary origin for the spheres or consider them to be related to glaciation. See also the Moeraki Boulders, FT248:7475. rbth.com, 11 Nov 2019; helenastales.com, 6 June 2021.