here’s a picture of the actual rock - and digger! phew!
Stratoscope 1 days ago [-]
That is a wonderful article!
> Over the years, Pitelka has rescued some of these rocks and deposited them at his mom’s five-acre property, including a large hunk of limestone that, when he dumped it out of his truck, split in half to reveal a perfect trilobite fossil, convex on one side and a matching imprint on the other.
> “I was so excited to hear that the right people got involved,” he said. “I’m absolutely ecstatic it’s going to be on display. For me, as an (excavator) who loves boulders, it’s the coolest thing that people understand its historical significance and appreciate it.”
cr125rider 13 hours ago [-]
Man this guy found his life’s calling. Love to see it.
elcritch 10 hours ago [-]
I love the ambiguity as to whether his mom wants the rocks dropped off in her yard or not. ;)
mathgenius 11 hours ago [-]
They should name it after this guy, the Pitelka rock.
xnx 14 hours ago [-]
That rock couldn't have been found by a better guy.
Bluestein 13 hours ago [-]
Even a rock has a soulmate! Not I.- /s
ComputerGuru 13 hours ago [-]
TFA has a picture as well; just scroll down.
cmrx64 11 hours ago [-]
I did but honestly didn’t see it. My connection was struggle to load all the billions of ads.
I was going to suggest just this! I love Boaty McBoatface.
But as a resident of the Chicago area, I’m partial to Da Rock
aceazzameen 14 hours ago [-]
Can have the best of both worlds.
Da Rocky McRockface
tanseydavid 14 hours ago [-]
Rocky McRockface is the perfect name and gets my vote.
MegaDeKay 12 hours ago [-]
Came here with that same name in mind. It would be a stone cold crime if that wasn't picked.
dmd 10 hours ago [-]
Gneiss!
senectus1 11 hours ago [-]
Missed opportunity to call it "Rocky Bouldoa"
Mountain_Skies 10 hours ago [-]
That would be a slam dunk winner if it was the airport in Philadelphia.
underdeserver 12 hours ago [-]
I wonder if there'll be an episode of Hello Internet on it.
tjwebbnorfolk 13 hours ago [-]
I think this is the only valid name
Stratoscope 1 days ago [-]
Here are the name finalists:
• Sweet Stone Chicago
• No ORDinary Rock
• Chicago Rocks
• O'Rock
• Orchard Rock
• Da Rock
"No ORDinary Rock" and "Orchard Rock" are the winners for me. They both pay tribute to how O'Hare got its IATA airport code in the 1940s, when it was called Orchard Field.
So deciding between the two, Orchard Rock is my pick! It's subtle, but the plaque can explain it.
swingandamiss 13 hours ago [-]
I like "Orchard Rock" because it's not some stupid reddit'ism.
lbriner 14 hours ago [-]
Just call it "Dwayne Johnson"?
Then in generations to some, old people can explain that Dwayne Johnson was the King of Wrestling and then became King of Hollywood.
adzm 13 hours ago [-]
Naming things after living people is bad luck
jhatax 16 hours ago [-]
Surprised to see `ExtraORDinary Rock` missing => 50-tons, that's got to meet the bar for extraordinary.
robotnikman 14 hours ago [-]
I like 'Da Rock' because it reminds me of da orks from Warhammer 40K
firesteelrain 2 hours ago [-]
Or ‘Da Bears’ trope from the SNL Skit
phlakaton 11 hours ago [-]
So they completely ignored the discoverer's suggestion. Humbug.
wpm 12 hours ago [-]
Shakin my damn head where is "Rock and Roll McDonald"
whycome 16 hours ago [-]
Wish I saw some of the larger list. This still seems weak.
ORD as an acronym? O Rock D
O’Hare Rock Dolostone
O’Hare Runway Dolomite
Rocky.
Da Dolo
jhatax 12 hours ago [-]
O Rock Damn.
deepspace 13 hours ago [-]
How is 'BDU' not the top choice?
toddmorey 13 hours ago [-]
Beanie’s Baby
RaftPeople 15 hours ago [-]
Ditka
anonymousDan 15 hours ago [-]
I like it. Ditka Rock has a certain ring to it.
JoeAltmaier 16 hours ago [-]
"Mother's Love"
Because, we so often take it for granite.
bell-cot 15 hours ago [-]
[dead]
syspec 14 hours ago [-]
Interesting, the construction worker who found is said he never found one that big in all his years working in the field.
I had no idea that would be rare, what makes it relatively rare?
firesteelrain 2 hours ago [-]
Largest dolomite rock ever found maybe ??
bcaulfield 1 days ago [-]
Should name it Dwayne Johnson and never explain further.
cestith 20 hours ago [-]
Or Rudy Ray Moore.
thehappypm 13 hours ago [-]
The pioneers used to ride those babies for miles!
fuzzfactor 10 hours ago [-]
Boulderdash!
ternaryoperator 16 hours ago [-]
Is a 50-ton boulder rare or super-rare?
crisnoble 15 hours ago [-]
In chicagoland, yes. For someone who moved there from California, it was strange that rocks hardly larger than a human warranted school field trips and plaques. Perhaps it is geologically cool, but I was unimpressed as a 6th grader. https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53236492797_60069bde90_b...
waltbosz 14 hours ago [-]
I thought the same thing. My back yard is full of huge rocks. Nothing quite that large, maybe 1/3 of that size. A few doors down there is a boulder twice as big as the O'Hare one.
I'm speaking in volume. I'm not sure of the mass of these boulders.
quickthrowman 11 hours ago [-]
In an area that was covered by a glacier in the last 20k years, yes.
Chicago was covered by ice during the most recent glaciation, which means that boulder is probably a glacial erratic covered by till leftover from the movement of the glacier.
rags2riches 6 hours ago [-]
It's not just the fact that the area was covered by ice. The local geology is also a factor.
Glacial erratics are everywhere in Scandinavia, which also obviously was covered by the ice. Small ones, like in the article, are scattered all over. Large ones weigh thousands of tons and may often be mistaken for bedrock.
I suspect there are other areas in North America where that's also true.
If you're ever in the area of Madison, NH and have absolutely nothing else to do, the Madison Boulder is kinda neat. [0] It's a little bigger at about 5k tons.
With New Hampshire mentioned, I must make mention of one glorious boulder that sits alongside Rumney's Quincy Road[0]. This is worth checking out if you're visiting the Plymouth area. Street View doesn't do it justice.
> It weighs upwards of 5,000 short tons (4,500,000 kg).
TIL there's something called a short ton.
defrost 3 hours ago [-]
If you're in the USofA it's the same 2,000 (US) pound ton you've always known.
For those of us elsewhere on the globe it's that non metric weight we call either a short ton or a US ton.
The OG ton, also known as the imperial ton or British ton is some 2,240 avoirdupois pounds that's been "standardised" (plus minus some obscure fuzzing) for some 700 years or so.
toddmorey 13 hours ago [-]
“I am going to show you where on earth in the future we will find the biggest rock: Space.”
I was going to suggest something in that vein, perhaps "a giant boulder the size of a large boulder" to distinguish it from its Coloradan cousin.
wffurr 15 hours ago [-]
Glad they included a video of moving it. 50 tons is close to the limit of a typical boom crane.
karlkloss 1 days ago [-]
Rocky McRockface
whycome 16 hours ago [-]
When Toronto had to name their team, I’m sure that the success of Jurassic Park helped the finalist (Raptors) win. I’m surprised “Rocky” didn’t make a finalist here (via Project Hail Mary).
Maybe that’s too Philadelphia.
O’Hare “Rocky” Dolomite
15 hours ago [-]
JoeAltmaier 16 hours ago [-]
Pictures or it didn't happen?
mikewarot 1 days ago [-]
Tangent time: I've got a smaller one in my yard, and I've got a set of feathers and wedges to avoid having to dig it all up at once. Here's a video of someone using feathers and wedges to split granite.
Years ago, a company that I worked for had a huge boulder in the parking lot area that had simply been built around. At some point, facilities decided they were going to remove the boulder. Employees printed up some tee shirts that said "Save the BFR". Because, you know, it was a big rock.
markstos 13 hours ago [-]
O'Bollard.
nyc_data_geek 15 hours ago [-]
Rocky McRockFace
MadrasTh0rn 14 hours ago [-]
CHIrock or CHI (shy) stone
MBCook 10 hours ago [-]
Oooh. “CHI and the Family Stone” is perfect.
wewewedxfgdf 8 hours ago [-]
Biggie.
pvaldes 16 hours ago [-]
Stonehangar, of course
shmilia 16 hours ago [-]
Bean
lifeisstillgood 14 hours ago [-]
“Deep Crust” surely?
mrlonglong 16 hours ago [-]
Bouldery McBoulderface.
AmazingEveryDay 12 hours ago [-]
What means "prehistoric boulder", are not essentially all boulders prehistoric? I just don't know what a historic boulder would even mean. Something in Raiders of the Lost Ark?
rags2riches 6 hours ago [-]
This boulder was broken off and shaped by the ice thousands of years ago. New rocks fall off mountains all the time.
ashton314 16 hours ago [-]
Peewee Pebblestone
pfdietz 11 hours ago [-]
Crystal
futuresoonpast 13 hours ago [-]
Rocky, obvs.
wewewedxfgdf 16 hours ago [-]
Big Boy Boulder
contingencies 15 hours ago [-]
As an Australian aware of Chicago's Irish heritage and the implied weight balancing our antipodean clime, I'd suggest "Tip O'Dea".
There's something about finding huge rocks in the ground while digging that makes you just want to take them out and like, use them for something? The last one I found I had to make myself leave it there (well I moved it over a foot so a pipe didn't have to go around it). Like no, it has sat here for thousands of years just fine, it can keep sitting. Glad to hear it applies to 50 ton ones, as well.
acomjean 1 days ago [-]
In New England they made stone walls out of them. Of course most where smallish
Oh sure, I'm definitely familiar with those. The weird ones are in forests, a reminder that an area used to be clear and then was left to grow back.
The walls of stones were the result of collecting stones that were near the surface from what I understand (maybe plow depth). I was talking more like bigger stones that were buried several feet under the ground that could just stay where they are (when you fill in the hole), but for a compulsion to treat them as things.
Colbert is not a Chicago figure. You'd have to remind the median Chicagoan who knows who he is that he ever spent time here. You might just as easily name it after Bob Odenkirk.
dhosek 12 hours ago [-]
And at least Odenkirk sounds like he’s from Chicago (because he is). Colbert’s time in Chicago was a short part of his life.
tptacek 12 hours ago [-]
Berwyn, technically! Our neck of the woods. :)
dhosek 8 hours ago [-]
He grew up in Naperville. Wikipedia says he was born in Berwyn, which I assume just means he was born at McNeal, but I don’t think he ever lived there or there’d be a bigger deal made of it by the local gentry. But that voice is hardcore inner suburbs/southwest side. I had no difficulty believing Jimmy McGill grew up in Cicero.
nonethewiser 16 hours ago [-]
I dont get it. Does he have some association with large rocks or something?
here’s a picture of the actual rock - and digger! phew!
> Over the years, Pitelka has rescued some of these rocks and deposited them at his mom’s five-acre property, including a large hunk of limestone that, when he dumped it out of his truck, split in half to reveal a perfect trilobite fossil, convex on one side and a matching imprint on the other.
> “I was so excited to hear that the right people got involved,” he said. “I’m absolutely ecstatic it’s going to be on display. For me, as an (excavator) who loves boulders, it’s the coolest thing that people understand its historical significance and appreciate it.”
[0]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36225652
But as a resident of the Chicago area, I’m partial to Da Rock
Da Rocky McRockface
So deciding between the two, Orchard Rock is my pick! It's subtle, but the plaque can explain it.
Then in generations to some, old people can explain that Dwayne Johnson was the King of Wrestling and then became King of Hollywood.
ORD as an acronym? O Rock D
O’Hare Rock Dolostone O’Hare Runway Dolomite
Rocky.
Da Dolo
Because, we so often take it for granite.
I had no idea that would be rare, what makes it relatively rare?
I'm speaking in volume. I'm not sure of the mass of these boulders.
Chicago was covered by ice during the most recent glaciation, which means that boulder is probably a glacial erratic covered by till leftover from the movement of the glacier.
Glacial erratics are everywhere in Scandinavia, which also obviously was covered by the ice. Small ones, like in the article, are scattered all over. Large ones weigh thousands of tons and may often be mistaken for bedrock.
I suspect there are other areas in North America where that's also true.
FYI, this refers to "Large boulder the size of a small boulder" in 2020
https://time.com/5772944/large-small-boulder/
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_Boulder
[0] https://maps.app.goo.gl/L4EcqopjLqvX9HQMA
[0] https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2017-11-03/you-asked-we-answere...
TIL there's something called a short ton.
For those of us elsewhere on the globe it's that non metric weight we call either a short ton or a US ton.
The OG ton, also known as the imperial ton or British ton is some 2,240 avoirdupois pounds that's been "standardised" (plus minus some obscure fuzzing) for some 700 years or so.
https://youtu.be/aO0TUI9r-So?si=7fNwDvf86GpVFxDR
https://time.com/5772944/large-small-boulder/
Maybe that’s too Philadelphia.
O’Hare “Rocky” Dolomite
https://youtu.be/s7_z-SGxUAs?si=vUKYBWYvG7nncszd&t=924
PS. If visiting Chicago check out the Lincoln Park Conservatory, an amazing historic plant collection with one of the world's best ferneries, very close to downtown. https://www.lincolnparkconservancy.org/projects/conservatory...
https://www.outdoors.org/resources/amc-outdoors/history/hist...
In “original” England they did as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_stone
The walls of stones were the result of collecting stones that were near the surface from what I understand (maybe plow depth). I was talking more like bigger stones that were buried several feet under the ground that could just stay where they are (when you fill in the hole), but for a compulsion to treat them as things.
In “original” England they did as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_stone
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_impact_of_The_Colbert...