utah monolith
Utah Department of Public Safety

A Strange Metal Monolith Was Found Deep In The Desert And Twitter Has Jokes

If you suspect that the world is ending, that totally makes sense. There are almost too many signs of the apocalypse to keep track of! This late in the year submission coming in from the Utah desert is still making waves. It’s just that weird. It started when the Utah Department of Public Safety took their helicopter crew out to count bighorn sheep. They saw the sheep, and they also saw a 12 foot tall, three-sided metal monolith structure. An ominous monolith, if you will.

The reason the crew was in a helicopter is partly because this is a difficult area to approach on foot or in a vehicle. So, it’s pretty hard to figure out how anyone…human… would be able to get something to that location as big and heavy as this metal slab.

“It is in a very remote area and if individuals were to attempt to visit the area, there is a significant possibility they may become stranded and require rescue,” DPS wrote in a statement. The theory is that an artist built and installed the monolith, though no one has come forward to claim the sculpture.

The Verge reports that a number of Redditors and Google Maps experts immediately leaped on the chance to figure out exactly where the monolith was based on the pictures, and were likely successful. But interestingly, Reddit sleuth Tim Slane isn’t celebrating the installation of this monolith even if he leaped on the chance to find it.

“It is illegal, destructive to the rock, and potentially disruptive to the Big Horn Sheep if it becomes a trend,” he said.

Meanwhile, Redditor u/bear__f*cker geolocated the obelisk and, based on Google Earth Historical Imagery,” estimated that it was installed “sometime after August 17, 2015 and before October 20th, 2016”

Hopefully, it does not. But it is definitely a trend on Twitter to compare the monolith to 2001: A Space Odyssey and suggest the aliens put it there to mess with us:

https://twitter.com/andyblewis/status/1331390748445470721

https://twitter.com/SteveMartinToGo/status/1331387377286307842

Okay, if aliens did place this monolith down, could you all swing back around and pick me up? 

More Twitter jokes: