FIRE!!!
Posted on 08/29/2014 12:16:04 PM PDT by zeugma
The first witnesses to an enduring natural mystery are an engineer, a biologist and a planetary scientist who met thanks to a remote weather station.
Lacking direct evidence, explanations for this geologic puzzle ran the gamut, from Earth's magnetic field to gale-force winds to slippery algae. Now, with video, time-lapse photographs and GPS tracking of Racetrack Playa's moving rocks, the mystery has finally been solved.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Normally I wouldn't post from a place that requires excerpting, but this is pretty cool.
Apparently, the reason the rocks move is because the 'dry' lakebed sometimes gets an inch or so of rain, then freezes overnight. As the ice melts, if there is wind as well, the pressure from the fracturing ice and wind will push the rocks along. They apparently set up some artificial "rocks" with GPS transmitters in them and set up cameras as well, and were able to actually film them moving.
Cool stuff. One more mystery solved. (for the smaller rocks anyway - they said that during this incident, the larger ones didn't move)
Let me guess: They’re dancing?
An engineer, a biologist and a planetary scientist go into a bar. The bartender asks why they are there during that part of the working day. There answer was, we have discovered scientific facts that it can be to wet to plow and to windy to haul rocks!
Nah, they’re rocking out.
I for one am glad to have this mystery solved.
For those about to rock, we salute you.
Dry lakes, once rained, are really slick! And fun as hell. One can actually do donuts with vehicles like on lake ice. So it seems correct that surface objects could move around like they do.
AT LAST!!!! I can finally get a good nights sleep.
FIRE!!!
There’s going to be some upset freepers who were convinced it was aliens from space!!!
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