Rocks Falling From The Sky!

[Mr. Bloom]

Yesterday, I'm riding along in a remote marshy area of the gulf coast.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a pebble hits the front of my helmet and makes a VERY loud "smack" sound. I felt it, heard it, but never saw it coming. There's no way that the tire kicked it up on me...trajectory wouldn't have worked...

I was on a road where a car hadn't passed for a few minutes and I was totally alone in a wooded, marshy area. There were no clouds in the sky either.

So, in God's huge creation, what would cause one little pebble to find my head in the middle of nowhere???

Any ideas? Anyone else had this happen?

[crazycanuck]

Mr silver...it's the earth conspiring against you? Run for your lives the rocks are alive..

*ahem* Seriously though Mr Silver, i've no idea...

I'm sure we must have an construction engineer lurking who might be able to help.

C

[lph]

Yoicks. That would have hurt without a helmet.

I'm guessing a bird, that had picked up a worm or insect or something and got a pebble along with it.

Somewhat related - we have gulls that pick up mussels, drop them on the road, and if they don't break on impact the gulls hang around waiting for a car to run over them and break them open for them.

[Bikingmomof3]

Yet another reason helmets are an excellent idea. Seriously, I am glad you were not hurt.

[SouthernBelle]

You p*ssed off God?

[DebW]

Maybe it was falling satellite debris or a meteorite - oh, that would probably have burned a hole in your helmet. OK, I like the bird theory.

[IFjane]

maybe it was a REALLY LARGE INSECT??

[Offthegrid]

It fell off a giant's shoe.

[Duck on Wheels]

What was the weather like around there? Any chance that a pebble had been picked up by a twister some distance away and then fell when it got spun out of the high wind area? Now, if you know a physicist, and if you found that pebble and kept it, (s)he could maybe calculate from the (lack of) damage to your helmet what the maximum speed might have been that the pebble had when it hit your helmet, or perhaps some range of speed. From that, you could also calculate the height from which it could have fallen, which can make all the difference between, say, something dropped by a bird from up in a tree or something spinning off the wheel of an airplane just tucking it's landing gear in or out, or something dropped by a high wind.

[7rider]

Mr. Silver = Chicken Little. "The sky is falling!!"

Okay - here's a scenario....
Your rear wheel (actually, tire) picked up a hitch-hiker, lifted it up and flung it UP and over your back, towards the front of the bike, like a catapult. You, moving forward, hit the pebble on it's way back down.

Hey...it could happen. Right?? Right???

[HillSlugger]

I think the sky is falling Chicken Little!

[Brandi]

Maybe it was falling satellite debris or a meteorite - oh, that would probably have burned a hole in your helmet. OK, I like the bird theory.

I concur!

[PinkBike]

call the FAA - in case an aircraft dropped it and is now as we speak circling endlessly for lack of that one part that fell off that would have allowed them to land

[lph]

Ok, I take it back. It wasn't a bird. Your ideas are much better

[mountainchick]

Being the exceptional geologist that I am (really ) it was a rare form of volcanic rock that has been known to move on its own.

So not really, but thats very weird. Good thing you had the helmet on!