Questions abound over whether vandals destroyed the sculpture, made by a Finnish-born artist known as Eino, or whether a combination of substandard adhesive and rain caused it to crumble in the middle of the night on Dec. 29 in a collapse the campus police said they felt from their offices around the corner.

Just three months old, the $1 million globe, made of 88 chunks of Brazilian quartzite and adorned with raised bronze signifying land masses, lies disintegrated at the university, in Kennesaw, Ga., outside a new academic building praised for its eco-friendly attributes. A bronze statue of David Brower, a conservationist who was the first executive director of the Sierra Club, had stood atop the 15-foot globe and is now partly crushed. A steel time capsule intended to be opened in 3006 is exposed amid the rubble.

Eino flew to the site from his home in Pahrump, Nev., the day after the collapse and said he saw "very clear evidence" of vandalism. Steel beams that held together parts of the globe's seven layers of stone had been bent, he said, adding that the adhesive used is the same as that used by most large-scale sculptors, although he would not name the manufacturer.

"The craftsmanship wasn't the cause," said Eino, whose Web site called "Spaceship Earth" his "most ambitious project yet." One of his sculptures is in the Library of Congress; another adorned a venue for the Athens Olympics in 2004.

But a university spokeswoman, Arlethia Perry-Johnson, said yesterday that the Cobb County police have said they do not think vandalism caused the collapse.

"The first phase was to identify if there were any signs of criminal activity, and we have completed that process," Ms. Perry-Johnson said. "The next phase of emphasis will focus on the potential structural causes."

The sculpture was commissioned by Brian Maxwell, who created the PowerBar energy snack and donated it to Kennesaw.

"When I first heard about it and saw it, I was in disbelief," said Birgit Wassmuth, chairwoman of the department of communication whose office in the new building will overlook the sculpture site. "I've never seen a sculpture disintegrate like that. When you see the pattern how it fell apart, it was just like magic, it just disintegrated."

Eino said he had plans to return to the campus to rebuild his work and ideas about how to make it stronger.

But some see the destruction as symbolic of the need to care for the fragile earth.