When it comes to rocks, most people probably wouldn’t think much of them, as they’re not typically considered a remarkable natural attraction. But what if we told you there’s a kind of rock that “sheds blue tears”? Would you believe it? Would you want to find out more?
The photography studio Tdub Photo once released a series of photos titled “Crying Stones,” featuring rocks glowing blue, as if they were crying. After the images spread widely online, many Japanese people and even foreign tourists said they were unbelievably beautiful and wanted to visit the place in the photos to see these rocks that shed blue tears for themselves.
It turns out this photo series was taken along the coast of the Seto Inland Sea in Okayama Prefecture. Although the rocks appear to be glowing blue, the light actually doesn’t come from the rocks themselves but from extremely tiny sea shrimp (Vargula hilgendorfii), which are thus also known as “sea fireflies.” These shrimp are only 3 millimeters long and are relatively common along the southern coastal regions of Japan. They often inhabit shallow waters near the shore, so sometimes they get washed ashore and onto the rocks by the ocean current. If you don’t look closely, you might mistake them for sapphiric blue gemstones scattered across the sand.
However, it’s not actually possible for so many sea fireflies to gather on the shore all at once—they were captured over time by the photographers to achieve the visual effect. But while taking the photos, they didn’t forget to protect the natural ecosystem. After the shoot, all the sea fireflies that had been brought ashore were released back into the ocean.
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