The Cannonball Run* The answer

If you haven't read the post that posed the question, then here's a link to it so you can read it before you read this post. It has been a few more weeks than it was intended to be, since the cannonball question was posted. Sometimes life can have other plans than the one's we make. Thank you for being so patient.

The objects were definitely not cannonballs, they are concretions. Concretions are a curious geological formation which 'grows' within solid sedimentary rock, often forming around some piece of biological matter - a tooth, a leaf, anything organic or indeed, around something inorganic- like a grain of sand, and they are formed by the precipitation of minerals, that move through the rock, around that nucleus, over thousands and millions of years. When concretions are split open, they can sometimes reveal very interesting fossils, though sometimes, leaving them whole, and enjoying them for what they are, is the right thing to do.

Concretions come in all sizes from tiny marbles, just a few millimetres across, and hardly noticeable, to some, in North Dakota for example, which are around 3 metres in diameter.

These geological fascinations can be near perfectly round and the two that had been found were just the right size to be convincing cannonballs. Ready to be the cause of some mischief in the Arctic.

Concretion 'Cannonball' in situ - ©Chris Searston 2015

The Cannonball Run?* is the same as the name of a popular 1981 comedy film starring many well known actors of their day Burt Reynolds, Farrah Fawcett, Roger Moore, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jnr.