The phenomenon of itacolumite – the rock that can be bent by hand
Sometimes nature is surprisingly multifaceted and unpredictable. After all, it would seem that it lives according to the rules and laws that have evolved over millions of years, and there can be no exceptions to them. However, in reality this is not at all the case: for example, it is believed that flexibility is a characteristic that is completely uncharacteristic of stones.
But it seems so only until the moment when the itacolumite appears on the path of this thesis, which, under certain conditions, a person is able to bend with his bare hands.
This amazing natural material got its name in honor of the place of the first discovery - the rock formation of Pico do Itacolomi, in the Brazilian Minas Gerais, Brazil. Such an unusual metamorphic rock, never seen before, was described by the German and Portuguese geologist Wilhelm Ludwig von Eschwege for the first time. But the idea of the name "Itacolumite" belongs to another person - Alexander von Humboldt, who used this term in 1823 in his book "Geognostic experiments on rock deposits in both hemispheres of the Earth."
Later it turned out that itacolumite is not so rare - it can also be found in other places around the planet, such as the US states of Georgia and North Carolina or the Indian village of Kaliana. Moreover, for quite a long time this rock has been actively used as a building material. Most often, itacolumite is used as follows: it is divided into parts about 1 centimeter thick and about 20 centimeters long, in order, for example, to clad floors or walls in a room with it.
The mystery of such unusual behavior for rocks has been haunting geologists and other researchers for decades. There are several theories as to why itacolumite is capable of this: one is that it is porosity, which encourages interstitial movement, while the sand particles are held together by a special type of coupling similar to swivel joints. And although the mysteries of this unusual rock have not yet been fully revealed, one experience of contact with a rock that bends so easily if pressure is applied to its ends brings a lot of impressions.
