Just for reference, you may also look up Moqui Marbles, Moqui Balls, thunderballs and Shaman stones. Distinct parallels to the "bluberries" found on Mars.

An alternate theory to sedimentation is electrical causation. Though it hasn't been studied much. Actually, electrical interactions on Earth and in the solar system in genreal haven't been given much air time.

An interesting article:

http://thunderbolts.info/tpod/2005/arch05/050325blueberries.htm

I'll note bias and say it's a fringe or slightly sub-fringe site dealing with possible electrical machinations in the terrestrial sphere, solar system and cosmos.

But it IS an "interesting" interpretation. If spherules are created by electrical arcing processes in similar soil samples in the lab, why is it such a stretch to explain these by "lightning formation." We've never reproduced production-by-sedimentation in the lab, to my knowledge. But we have reproduced similar concretions in the lab with electricity, apparently.

So, what do you guys think? Interesting? Not. Certainly not mainstream, but still bears a certain level of possibility.

There's a couple other articles relating to them on the site as well, for anyone with more than casual interest. They're all geared toward laymen, which is one of the sites biggest selling points and its biggest weaknesses. It's udnerstandable but doesn't go into the scientific underpinnings in greater detail.

http://thunderbolts.info/tpod/2006/arch06/060522blueberries.htm
http://thunderbolts.info/tpod/2005/arch05/050328blueberries.htm
http://thunderbolts.info/tpod/2004/arch/040827mars.htm

I tend to side with them on a few issues, but hold back a bit on some of the more out-there stuff like parallel mythology and reconstruction of ancient planetary orbital patterns based on said mythology, which isn't (at least I don't think so) "science."

One more slightly related article of theirs has possible bearing on a terrestrial scale, in terms of concretions of both small scales and of planets:

http://thunderbolts.info/tpod/2006/arch06/060824iapetusridge.htm

I guess I'll leave you with that, wander off and let you guys discuss. Enjoy!

Okay, sorry, thought of one more unrelated but "interesting" site...

http://205.243.100.155/frames/shrinkergallery.html

From www.teslamania.com (they do intereting things with electricity, including shrinking coins and creating lichtenberg figures; both of which can be bought there, but you can also read about the processes used forcreation). The reason I think this is interesting is if you look at the shrunken coin page, it actually is a very visceral demonstration of what electricity is capable of doing/deforming. Specifically, look at the one images half way down the page:

Caption: "Because of its excellent electrical conductivity and mechanical softness, aluminum coins shrink quite well! Here's a group of Japanese 1 Yen coins from Peter Ledlie showing medium and extreme shrinkage. The bullet shaped coin on the far right is about 2.5 times as thick as its diameter... "

Caption: "If two coins are placed side by side and then shrunk simultaneously, high currents are induced in both coins. This causes the coins to magnetically attract each other along the rims, smashing them together while the coins are simultaneously shrinking. This results in the coins assuming an interesting hemispherical shape. Using a more powerful shrinker, these Georgia quarters were shrunk by Texas shrinker Bill Emery using an energy level of 11,000 joules."

Caption: "Believe it or not, this "Quarter Ball" was once a Delaware quarter. It was created by two friends and fellow shrinkers in Texas, Bill Emery and Phil Rembold, who used 21,000 joules to crunch it down to this size. The coin's diameter is now actually SMALLER than its thickness! The incredible forces also caused a bonding failure between cladding layers in the center of the coin. Even so, the horse's feet, head and some lettering can still be recognized!"

So, under the right circumstances, electricity can cause conductive materials to deform and shrink and warp, even becoming hemispherical, or almost spherical (with the same equatorial ridge displayed by concretions on earth, and the equatorial ridge of Iapetus).

Okay, enough food for thought. Talk amongst yourselves...
~Michael Gmirkin