Among the “cruising stones” that has actually crossed Racetrack Playa, leaving a track with a sharp bend in it. (Image credit: Jon Sullivan)
FAST FACTS
Call: Racetrack Playa
Area: Death Valley National Park, California
Collaborates: 36.68167631035219, -117.56270022604872
Why it’s unbelievable: The playa is home to “cruising stones” that appear to move of their own volition.
Racetrack Playa is a dry, flat lakebed in California that is cluttered with numerous mystical, moving rocks. Understood as the “cruising stones,” these rocks leave tracks extending up to 1,500 feet (460 meters) long as they wander throughout the surface area apparently without cause.
The cruising stones have actually puzzled scientists because the mid-1900s, however up until 2013, nobody had really seen or taped the rocks moving. It was clear, nevertheless, that they occasionally altered place, since they left grooves in the ground behind them. Extremely, a few of the Racetrack Playa rocks weigh around 700 pounds (320 kgs).
In a research study released in 2014, researchers lastly recorded the motion of the cruising stones. The scientists fitted 15 rocks with motion-activated GPS instruments and set up a time-lapse video camera to monitor them. The group likewise established a high-resolution weather condition station to get small variations in wind speed.
The experiment supplied responses in a remarkably brief quantity of time, considered that the cruising stones can remain in one area for more than a years at a time without moving. In between December 2013 and January 2014– simply 2 years into the job, which began in 2011– the scientists observed more than 60 rocks moving at speeds of 7 to 16 feet per minute (2 to 5 meters per minute).
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The information revealed that an unusual pattern of rains and wind lagged the cruising stones’ motions. While researchers currently presumed that wind pressed the rocks, it was uncertain how a few of the larger stones ended up being displaced and why the motions were so erratic. Another unanswered concern was why numerous rocks, however not all, revealed completely parallel tracks, consisting of some with concurrent doglegs and turnarounds in instructions.
A photo taken throughout the research study reveals lots of cruising stones and their tracks, with some revealing parallel lines and in agreement motions. (Image credit: Norris et al. 2014, PLOS One)
The research study exposed that the cruising stones move when a thin, lubing “windowpane” layer of ice kinds on the playa during the night after rains. The early morning sun warms and melts the ice, forming drifting panels that push numerous rocks along simultaneously in an instructions and at speeds identified by the wind.
The rocks originate from the surrounding mountains, toppling down onto Racetrack Playa as an outcome of disintegration. They are made from dolomite and syenite, according to the National Park Foundation. The playa, which extends about 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) long and 2 miles (3.2 km) broad,