The Sailing Stones of Racetrack Playa
The stones of Racetrack Playa leave trails of movement, yet no one has ever seen them move
Category Natural Wonders, Martian Landscapes, Geological Oddities
There is something utterly magical about the sailing stones of the Racetrack Playa in Death Valley California. Scattered about the desert are large rocks with mysterious trails left behind them. The trails show that these rocks have rolled and zig-zagged across the ground, sometimes for as long as 860 feet. Yet no one has ever seen the stones actually move. The trails last for years before fading, so it is almost impossible to predict when the stones will move or how fast they move.
A team of scientists set out to find the answers. They named a group of stones, and did surveys of the area over a seven-year period. A 700-pound block dubbed Karen, which didn't move at all while under study, was entirely missing when they returned years later. A sighting of the 700-pound Karen was made over half a mile from the survey site. Later teams have studied the phenomenon and determined that winter ice flows and strong winter winds are responsible for the movement of the stones; in particularly strong winters, stones may move further.
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- Address Death Valley, California, United States
Comments
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Anonymous
September 29, 2009
This is soooo awesome. the youtube site above is really helpful. i have to write a paper on this for class and it is just so unbelieveable. what i dont get is how two rocks next to each other can move off in totally different directions. Why???? -
Anonymous
June 22, 2009
This place is awesome. A team of geologists actually discovered not too long ago what makes the rocks move. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1hoiHvOeGc.
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Anonymous
June 17, 2009
The opening paragraph, first word, should be "There"
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