Spent 3 hours debunking that 'lost city' photo from the Amazon

It was a picture of a weird rock formation in Brazil that got shared as a 'newly discovered ancient city'. I had to cross-check satellite maps, find the original geology paper from 2017, and trace the photo back to a hiker's blog. The whole thing was just a natural feature. How do these nature pics keep getting turned into fake archaeology stories so fast?

4 comments

4 Comments

emma_baker613mo ago

My own rock collection could start a few of those stories, they're that weird looking. What's the wildest one you've had to debunk?

the_claire12d ago

I used to be one of those people who'd see a weird rock and immediately think it was something ancient or alien, you know? But then I actually went out hiking with a geologist friend and they explained how natural formations happen. It totally changed how I see things like the Giant's Causeway or those "dragon scales" in Utah. Now I just laugh at the posts because it's always just erosion or mineral deposits. The wildest one I had to debunk for myself was a "fossilized giant hand" that was really just a cluster of iron nodules. Truth is, nature is already so bizarre and beautiful without needing to make up stories about it.

charles7203mo ago

That "weird rock formation" thing is everywhere. I saw a video last week claiming a mountain ridge in Canada was a giant buried wall. It was just the Canadian Shield, basic geology. People see a pattern and jump straight to aliens or lost civilizations.

kai_chen23mo ago

I used to fall for that stuff all the time lol, but seeing how fast a normal picture gets twisted really opened my eyes.