Racetrack Playa, a desert lake bed in the mountains above California's Death Valley, where stones were known to move overnight leaving enigmatic trails Photo: Alamy
Posted on 08/28/2014 10:20:39 AM PDT by Red Badger
It's a geological enigma that's had scientists speculating for half a century. But the mystery behind Death Valley's 'Wandering Stones' has finally been uncovered.
It was previously unknown what caused the rocks to move across Racetrack Playa, a desert lake bed in the mountains above California's Death Valley, leaving their distinctive trails behind them.
But researchers have witnessed a thin layer of water freezing over the lake, before breaking into sheets the thickness of a window pane and nudging the rocks as they were blown by the breeze.
“It’s a delight to be involved in sorting out this kind of public mystery,” Richard Norris, an oceanographer at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, told Nature.
Richard led the research with his cousin James Norris, an engineer at Interwoof in Santa Barbara, California and their work was published in PLoS ONE1.
The research team started their work in 2011, setting up a weather station and time-lapse cameras as well as attaching GPS trackers to rocks.
But the breakthrough came in December 2013 when they visited their site and witnessed a large ice sheet covering around a third of the 4.5 kilometre stretch.
After a few days camping at the site, the team heard the start of the process as the ice began to crack.
“It was a beautiful sunny day, and there began to be rippled melt pools in front of us,” Richard Norris said.
“At 11.37am, very abruptly, there was a pop-pop-crackle all over the place in front of us — and I said to my cousin, ‘This is it.’"
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Racetrack Playa, a desert lake bed in the mountains above California's Death Valley, where stones were known to move overnight leaving enigmatic trails Photo: Alamy
Pretty cool. I read about a year ago that researchers were speculating that ice and wind were doing it. Looks like it’s been proven. Pretty neat though.
and all this time i thought it just HAD to be aliens!
NOW, maybe they can get to work on finding out what the h%^# happened to Nancy Pelosi’s brain!
It’s in the picture I posted..................
Ha! There it is!! OK-solved two mysteries with one stone!
BS. Answer: An external force.
This has been known since Newton: When viewed in an inertial reference frame, an object either remains at rest or continues to move at a constant velocity, unless acted upon by an external force.
The unknow was what exactly was that external force.......now they know
ROTFL!
Perfect!
I have an Erik von Daniken book from the 70s (I am huge fan of paranormal and supernatural phenomena trends and the like, but don’t believe the bullshit) that mentions this theory as the most plausible. Ho-hum. This crap comes up every few years, and no one seems to recall how far back it goes and how simple the explanation is. Still, thanks for Fortean post. Keep them coming.
Nice catch. I love Spongebob!
I read not long ago that someone stole the original stones.
Until the next theory comes along.
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