Futility Closet

Mima Mounds

Posted in Oddities by Greg Ross on September 25th, 2009

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mima.jpg

What are these? They appear by the hundreds throughout western North America, but no one knows what produces them. Earthquakes? Glaciers? People? Gophers? The force involved must be considerable — the mounds can reach 8 feet in height and 50 feet in diameter — but for now their origin is a mystery.