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How Scientists Resolved the Mystery of the Devil’s Corkscrews

  • Web Diva
    Leader
    October 17, 2023 6:10 PM CDT
    I have never seen such objects embedded in stone before. The impressions in the stone are literally like huge corkscrews. Read on to find out the archeological history.

    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/how-scientists-resolved-mystery-devils-corkscrews-180973487/


    One of the most unusual fossils ever to be found are strange tall structures recovered across Nebraska, primarily in the state’s northwestern badlands and in neighboring parts of Wyoming. Known locally as Devil’s Corkscrews, each structure is the infilling of a left- or right-handed spiral or helix that can extend up to seven feet into the ground. At the deep end of the spiral, a tunnel extends sideways and up at an angle. These structures became exposed by weathering of the soft rock enclosing them on the sides of bluffs or ravines. They mainly occur in the fine-grained sandstones of the Harrison Formation, which dates from the Miocene epoch and are about 20 to 23 million years old.
  • Mark Ransome
    October 19, 2023 2:43 PM CDT
    Very interesting article and no Devil insight! It's amazing what fossils can tell us in the right hands.
  • Web Diva
    Leader
    October 19, 2023 3:46 PM CDT
    Fossils are amazing and no devils in the corkscrews lol. When I was little (like a century ago), if someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I'd say; an archeologist, and a ballerina. Well, I turned out doing something different lol, but I'm still seriously fascinated by all of the geosciences.