The Majorly Mysterious Mima Mounds

Hey ATS, I came across some information on the Mima mounds. There wasn't a thread on ATS about it so I thought I would share. These mounds are pretty amazing considering the vast distance and various locations on where they can be found.

Hope you enjoy and maybe you can add some insight into these odd mounds.

We don't know what they are, where they came from, or what caused them Scientists love a mystery. Biologists used to have the human genome, but now they have the structure of protein. Physics used to have cosmic rays, but now they have the God particle. Astronomers used to have black holes, but now they have dark matter. And then there’s the puzzle, the enigma, the joyous mystery that dots the world over: the riddle of what’s commonly called Mima Mounds.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a72a17536511.jpg[/atsimg]
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/fb2f9dcc73b4.jpg[/atsimg]

TextWhat’s an extra added bonus about these cryptic ‘whatevertheyares’ is that they aren’t as miniscule as a protein sequence, aren’t as subatomic as the elusive God particle, and certainly not as shadowy as dark matter. Found in such exotic locales as Kenya, Mexico, Canada, Australia, China and in similarly off-the-beaten path locations as California, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, and especially Washington state, the mounds first appear to be just that: mounds of earth.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8c8817a2e6ae.jpg[/atsimg]

The first thing that’s odd about the mounds is the similarity, regardless of location. With few differences, the mounds in Kenya are like the mounds in Mexico which are like the mounds in Canada which are like the … well, you get the point. All the mounds are heaps of soil from three to six feet tall, often laid out in what appear to be evenly spaced rows. Not quite geometric but almost. What’s especially disturbing is that geologists, anthropologists, professors, and doctors of all kinds – plus a few well-intentioned self-appointed "experts" – can’t figure out what they are, where they came from, or what caused them.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/7d98bc4a8594.jpg[/atsimg]

Not man-made, hardly nature-made and possibly not subconscious-made.

One of the leading theories is that they are man-made, probably by indigenous people. Sounds reasonable, no? Folks in loincloths hauling dirt in woven baskets, meticulously making mound after mound after … but wait a minute. For one thing it would have been a huge amount of work, especially for a culture that was living hand-to-mouth. Then there’s the fact that, as far as can be determined, there’s nothing in the mounds themselves. Sure they aren’t exactly the same as the nearby ground, but they certainly don’t contain grain, pot shards, relics, mummies, arrowheads, or anything that really speaks of civilization. They are just dirt. And if they are man-made, how did the people in Kenya, Mexico, Canada, Australia, China, California, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, and especially Washington state all coordinate their efforts so closely as to produce virtually identical mounds? That’s either one huge tribe or a lot of little ones who somehow could send smoke signals thousands of miles. Not very likely.

A map of suggested mima mound structures in the US.
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/501655f444ff.jpg[/atsimg]

Google Earth images of Mima Mounds in China
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a3520ea046d2.jpg[/atsimg]

Next on the list of explanations is that somehow the mounds were created either by wind and rain or by geologic ups and downs – that there’s some kind of bizarre earthy effect that has caused them to pop up. Again, it sounds reasonable, right? After all, there are all kinds of weird natural things out there: rogue waves, singing sand, exploding lakes, rains of fish and frogs – so why shouldn’t mother nature create field after field of neat little mounds? The "natural" theory of nature being responsible for the Majorly Mysterious Mima Mounds starts to crumble upon further investigation. Sure there’s plenty of things we don’t yet understand about how our native world behaves scientists do know enough to be able to say what it can’t do – and it’s looking pretty certain it can’t be as precise, orderly, or meticulous as the mounds.

Google Earth views of mounds
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a86ba50eb3a3.jpg[/atsimg]

But still more theories persist. For many who believe in ley lines, that crop circles are some form of manifestation of our collective unconscious, in ghosts being energy impressions left in stone and brick, the mounds are the same, or at least similar: the result of an interaction between forces we as yet do not understand, or never will, and our spaceship earth.

Google Earth images of Mima Mounds in Africa
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/c5997830902e.jpg[/atsimg]

www.darkroastedblend.com...

So what do you think ATS? Any Ideas on how these mounds were formed?

[edit on 22-5-2010 by TV_Nation]

That was one great thread. Very interesting. S&F. I don't know. At first I thought it might be a tribes excrement piled up but then I thought how weird that would be? It might be a tribes first try at building shelter. Imagine boards that can run across them and provide shelter with the addition of a few leaves. I don't know I am stumped. I could always say E.T. landing pads.

reply to post by TV_Nation


Those trees in the one pic with the mounds look EXACTLY like the "shadows" on mars, that supposedly " aren't trees "......

Hmmm that is another mystery within this mystery...and could help as evidence.

K back to main topic.

These are really cool looking..

I would love to see a flowery field of these like in a Super Mario game or something..

reply to post by TV_Nation


I have driven through some of these fields in Oklahoma, after a thunderstorm, in the late afternoon, and is was really beautiful, the way the light was playing on the shadows.

I have no clue how they were made, but, the views from google earth, remind me of pores on skin!

reminds me of reptile skin. weird.

Objects to very easily hide behind to defend one's tribe from invasion.
Testing grounds for ancient societie's moon rovers.

I've done a little more research on this and still can't come up with a good reason why or how these mounds were made.

Explanations ranged from seismic causes and even to pocket gophers.

So when a flood was coming everyone would get on top of these moulds to escape the flood.The waters would pass straight though and the people would be safe on top of the mounds until the water went down.In another theorie it could be some form of anti caverly defence wall.just imegien caverly trying to fight infantry in a area like this.The horses could not get up much speed and the infantry would be running of mounds to knock the men off there horses.I would not want to send caverly into a area like this.The infantry would be sending the horses around in circles.Of course throwing a spear from top of a mould or a arrow would give you more advantage over caverly.

[edit on 22-5-2010 by GORGANTHIUM]

Very intriguing I have heard of Mound building cultures like the Mississippian mound builders, and Caddoan mound builders, but the majority of what I have seen of their works have been much different. I could hypothesis that it could be anything from natural salt formations, or any other natural deposit, or even a primitive for of construction, but that would just be an uneducated guess. Thank you for the intriguing thread though and making me contemplate on this.

Sound/vibration effecting sand is the first thing that popped into my head when i saw these pics.

The pattern looks to my eyes like a pattern produced when sound waved or vibrations encounter sand or water.
Maybe Ive been drinking too much Costa Rican coffee after bedtime, but that's what instantly popped into my head.

These are very interesting, thanks for the thread. They look at lot like the mounds seen on Mars. For me that would scream 'wind produced'. Quite strange though, no matter what causes the formations.

Is anyone else reminded of that Disney movie "holes" when they see this.

I live in Paris, Texas and there is a field about 4 miles away that have mounds like this. No one knows why, not even the land owner. Getcha some pics soon.

Most intriguing. Strange that no one has figured out what they are exactly. I'll be watching this thread in case someone finds some more information.

Interesting find, something I hadn't previously heard about. Star for you!

Originally posted by Bad Ninja
Sound/vibration effecting sand is the first thing that popped into my head when i saw these pics.

I like that theory. (Says the guy with the cymatic avatar)

Better than mine, that they are the result of the Peruvian Nazca holes (Lima Holes). Something indented a hole in Peru, which caused a corresponding bump to appear on the other side of the world.



[edit on 23-5-2010 by The Cusp]

Originally posted by Bad Ninja

Sound/vibration effecting sand is the first thing that popped into my head when i saw these pics.

The pattern looks to my eyes like a pattern produced when sound waved or vibrations encounter sand or water.
Maybe Ive been drinking too much Costa Rican coffee after bedtime, but that's what instantly popped into my head.

could be

geology.geoscienceworld.org...

Formation of Mima mounds: A seismic hypothesis
Andrew W. Berg1

1 U.S. Bureau of Mines, Western Field Operations Center, Spokane, Washington 99202

Mima mounds approximately 2.5 to 15 m in diameter and up to 3 m high occur on the ground surfaces at Mina Prairie, south of Olympia, Washington, in the Channeled Scabland of eastern Washington, and at many other locations in the United States and around the world. Small-scale Mima mounds can be produced experimentally by subjecting a plywood board covered with a thin veneer of loess to impacts that produce vibrations in the board. Experimentally produced mounds have characteristics that are nearly identical to those found in the field. This suggests that most Mima mounds formed as the result of seismic activity in conjunction with unconsolidated fine sediments on a relatively rigid planar substratum.

reply to post by Pauligirl
I tend towards the seismic activity as cause for the same reasons cited in the wiki article. I used to do a lot of roofing and remember how sawdust agglomerates into small round mounds from the vibrations of the saw. Not always and not as attractively, but often enough to suggest a similar process. Also, the article mentions the frequency of the mounds being quite low-density which would lend itself to seismic activity.

Likely, it's a collection of processes with seismic maybe being key? Interesting stuff...and very tenuously linked to A&LC!

I found a video of a Cymatic experiment that shows some patterns that are kind of like these formations. It's a bit of a stretch but shows how vibrations could cause such things.

My first thought was depostion by retreating glaciers but where they are located negates that possiblity as they didn't have glaciers at all those places. Another idea might be that these were abandoned agricultural fields where root crops like potatoes where stored. Erosion by rain and deposition by wind increased the size of the mounds over time.

S&F

These mounds reminded me of a creepy film I saw the other day called The New Daughter

reply to post by TV_Nation



could it be a cemetary ? a very old one ?

i dont know , im just guessing here