Posted on 09/12/2010 11:01:32 AM PDT by JoeProBono
One of the mysterious peripatetic, or roving, rocks of Death Valley National Park in California and Nevada sits at the end of a curved track in a summer 2010 picture.
Found in the Racetrack—an aptly named dry lakebed, or playa—the moving rocks have stumped scientists since the 1940s. For instance, the rocks are thought to move as fast as a walking person, but they've never been seen in action. Previous studies have shown that gravity or earthquakes can't explain the objects' movements.
Now a student-research project led by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center has lent support to the idea that, during wintertime, the rocks float down the playa on small "collars" of ice, which form around the stones when lake water flows down the surrounding hills and freezes on the lakebed, according to Cynthia Cheung, a principal investigator for the project. More water flows may allow the ice-collared rocks to "float."
A team of undergraduate and graduate students studied data from tiny sensors placed underneath the soil to monitor water flows. The team found that the sensors registered freezing water temperatures in March, which would provide the right conditions for ice collars to form.
Even so, the ice theory's not rock solid, Cheung noted: The harsh desert's many microclimates mean that "each rock ... may move by a different force, [and] there may not be one hypothesis that fits all the movements."
These are ancient, lost and lonely Sharia rocks looking for Islamists to hold and cuddle them.. then use ‘em to kill someone?
How could that be? The only real little green guy is Yoda. The rest of his species is extinct, and he is gone to the great light laser fight in the sky, or in the force, or wherever it’s being held.
Or, as I once heard a guy from Brooklyn express it, “May de Force be wit’ chou.”
These rocks are clearly migratory. They’re just heading south for the ice age.
Had a lot of good times playing electric football, what a wild, unpredictable, game. I am laughing just thinking about it.
No, no, no. That’s all wrong. This mystery was solved in the 60’s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjnOwgJN83k
If you have a free hour, this informative program will explain everything you ever needed to know about rocks.
so that’s where my pet rock went to?
The combo they found to get this "racetrack rock" effect was a light thin layer of morning ice/frost on the ground and rain water making a very very slick surface ... after that all it took very little wind to make multiple rocks slide along in a common direction at the same time
When my daughters were growing up they watched that movie 466 times...
“...call my name!”
Pet rocks trying to escape! If you listen you can hear them saying, “Help! We don’t want to be stoned!”, in their little gravely voices.
Two problems, I thought that Death Vally was in California, not Nevada; and are you sure that Harry Reid has had that many movements? He always looks constipated to me.
Oh yes. Try four-wheeling on it sometime, or in the first week after a DV rainstorm. It's like driving on ice.
A week later, the dry lake beds appear dry with cracked mud wafers on top, and then you drive into them and you're up past your wheel hubs in dense clay. Better hope you have friends with a few powerful winches, shovels, hearty lunches, and a lot of time.
"... Ah, mud and rain would better explain it then freezing temps (see above post)except that DV never average more than .42 in. of rain."
When it rains in DV, it really rains. That playa is the lowest part of what's already one of the lowest dry-land spots on Earth below sea-level.
SoCal desert rains always generate flash flood warnings from the NWS. People have been killed regularly simply by light rains or one good thunderhead coming through.
Here's how it works:
The desert floor is like a kiln-fired ceramic under a thin coating of fine silica dust. When the rains come, water finds the fastest way downhill. Pretty soon enough rushing water will accumulate until you have a 6" high wall of water barreling down the dry stream beds to the dry lake beds. Any hiker unlucky enough to be walking in the lowest part won't even have time to make a squeak when that ankle-high flash flood wall of water zips them off their feet and drags them a few hundred yards downstream dashing their heads on every rock along the way. They'll be unable to stand up and helpless to stop it. Even a strong person can drown in six inches of water really easy.
Sure, I can see those mysterious playa boulders moving from wind and rain across slippery mud over time with nothing but nature guiding them. You don't need to be a geologist to understand that the boulders which don't belong there in the first place came barreling down the nearby hills surrounding the playa after being dislodged by water:
There are places in the Santa Ana river bottom near San Bernardino where I can point out a few miles worth of Volkswagen bug-sized boulders that came from 7500' elevation up at the top of the San Bernardino mountains all the way down to the valley floor and into the river bed 10 and 20 miles away as the result of a massive rain storms that happened back in 1862, 1884, and again in 1938.
Between wandering rocks and crop circles, we need to remind ourselves that Earth is a “game board” and we are the pawns on it. It is those BEMs that are making these moves!
“I don’t think the temperature ever gets to freezing in DV,”
Death Valley National Park has a varied climate range from the valley floor well below sea level up to just over 11,000 ft summit of the Panamint Range on the Western border of Death Valley. This particular dry lake is not on the floor of Death Valley but another dry lake located at a much higher elevation within the park known as the “race track”.
Death Valley Natl. Park is on both sides of the CA/NV border.
:)
True story, when I was young and living in the crap hole called Bell Gardens in the LA area, a family moved in with two boys who immediately attached themselves to our group(I don't want to say gang). When they first started speaking we all thought they were putting us on at first but we soon found out they actually spoke that way: Dese for these, dem for them etc. It was an eye opener into the differences around the country. Real southern accents(as per my relatives, we were from Arkansas originally)also had the same effect on me. Disbelief at first and then later acceptance.
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