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An image shared on Facebook purportedly shows the stump of an ancient 10-mile tall tree. Verdict: False The image actually shows Jugurtha’s Tableland, a rock formation located in Tunisia. Fact Check: The claim that the photo shows the stump of an enormous ancient tree has been circulating online for years , appearing in Facebook posts dating back to at least 2017. A recent iteration of the claim has garnered over 8,300 shares . At its height, this tree trunk was 2.5 miles across, reads the caption for this particular post . The tree full grown would reach 10 miles into the sky. (RELATED: Does This Video Show Hurricane Laura Approaching The Louisiana-Texas Coast?) In reality, the formation in the image is Jugurtha’s Tableland , a rock formation located in Tunisia near the country’s border with Algeria. The Tunisian Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted the photo of the mesa in August 2017. Mesas, flat-topped mountains that are usually wider than they are tall, form via erosion, according to National Geographic . This isn’t the first time social media users have shared posts erroneously claiming a rock formation is the remnants of an ancient tree. In August, a viral Facebook post alleged the Devils Tower butte in Wyoming was one, despite the fact that geologists agree it formed from magma beneath the Earth’s surface.
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