Post by swamprat on Jun 17, 2013 14:12:32 GMT -6
Don't know that I buy this explanation but....it IS interesting!
How Do the 'Sailing Stones' of Death Valley Move?
Marc Lallanilla, Life's Little Mysteries Assistant Editor
Date: 17 June 2013
Heavy rocks like these seem to slide across the surface of Racetrack Playa in Death Valley National Park. CREDIT: Anatoliy Lukich | Shutterstock.com
For years, scientists have been puzzled by the mysterious "sailing stones" of Death Valley.
Located in a remote area of California's Death Valley National Park, the heavy stones appear to move across the dried lake bed known as Racetrack Playa, leaving a trail behind them in the cracked mud.
The rocks' apparent movement has been blamed on everything from space aliens and magnetic fields to pranksters. But no one has actually seen the rocks move, which only adds to the mystery.
"It's very quiet out there, and it's very open — and you tend to have the playa to yourself," park ranger Alan van Valkenburg told Smithsonian.com. "And the longer you stay out there, it just takes on this incredible sense of mystery."
Scientists have tried to solve the puzzle of the sailing stones for decades. Some researchers thought that dust devils might move the rocks, some of which weigh as much as 700 lbs. (318 kilograms).
Other researchers believed the strong winds that frequently whip across the vast lake bed could cause the rocks to slide across the ground. These and other theories were eventually disproved.
In 2006, Ralph Lorenz, a NASA scientist investigating weather conditions on Mars, took
an interest in Death Valley and, by extension, the enigmatic sailing stones of Racetrack Playa.
Lorenz developed a kitchen-table model — using an ordinary Tupperware container — to show how the rocks might glide across the surface of the lake bed.
"I took a small rock and put it in a piece of Tupperware, and filled it with water so there was an inch of water with a bit of the rock sticking out," Lorenz told Smithsonian.com.
After putting the container in the freezer, Lorenz had a small slab of ice with a rock embedded in it. Placed in a large tray of water with sand at the bottom, he found that he could move the ice-buoyed rock across the water by gently blowing on it.
And as the rock moved, it scraped a trail in the sand at the tray's bottom. Lorenz devised his clever experiment by researching how the buoyancy of ice can float large rocks along tidal beaches in the Arctic Sea.
Lorenz' research team calculated that under certain winter conditions in Death Valley, enough water and ice could form to float the rocks across the muddy bottom of Racetrack Playa in a light breeze, leaving a trail in the mud as they moved.
Nonetheless, some visitors to Death Valley seem to prefer more occult explanations for the sailing stones.
"People always ask, 'What do you think causes them to move?' But if you try to explain, they don't always want to hear the answers," van Valkenburg said. "People like a mystery — they like an unanswered question."
www.livescience.com/37492-sailing-stones-death-valley-moving-rocks.html
How Do the 'Sailing Stones' of Death Valley Move?
Marc Lallanilla, Life's Little Mysteries Assistant Editor
Date: 17 June 2013
Heavy rocks like these seem to slide across the surface of Racetrack Playa in Death Valley National Park. CREDIT: Anatoliy Lukich | Shutterstock.com
For years, scientists have been puzzled by the mysterious "sailing stones" of Death Valley.
Located in a remote area of California's Death Valley National Park, the heavy stones appear to move across the dried lake bed known as Racetrack Playa, leaving a trail behind them in the cracked mud.
The rocks' apparent movement has been blamed on everything from space aliens and magnetic fields to pranksters. But no one has actually seen the rocks move, which only adds to the mystery.
"It's very quiet out there, and it's very open — and you tend to have the playa to yourself," park ranger Alan van Valkenburg told Smithsonian.com. "And the longer you stay out there, it just takes on this incredible sense of mystery."
Scientists have tried to solve the puzzle of the sailing stones for decades. Some researchers thought that dust devils might move the rocks, some of which weigh as much as 700 lbs. (318 kilograms).
Other researchers believed the strong winds that frequently whip across the vast lake bed could cause the rocks to slide across the ground. These and other theories were eventually disproved.
In 2006, Ralph Lorenz, a NASA scientist investigating weather conditions on Mars, took
an interest in Death Valley and, by extension, the enigmatic sailing stones of Racetrack Playa.
Lorenz developed a kitchen-table model — using an ordinary Tupperware container — to show how the rocks might glide across the surface of the lake bed.
"I took a small rock and put it in a piece of Tupperware, and filled it with water so there was an inch of water with a bit of the rock sticking out," Lorenz told Smithsonian.com.
After putting the container in the freezer, Lorenz had a small slab of ice with a rock embedded in it. Placed in a large tray of water with sand at the bottom, he found that he could move the ice-buoyed rock across the water by gently blowing on it.
And as the rock moved, it scraped a trail in the sand at the tray's bottom. Lorenz devised his clever experiment by researching how the buoyancy of ice can float large rocks along tidal beaches in the Arctic Sea.
Lorenz' research team calculated that under certain winter conditions in Death Valley, enough water and ice could form to float the rocks across the muddy bottom of Racetrack Playa in a light breeze, leaving a trail in the mud as they moved.
Nonetheless, some visitors to Death Valley seem to prefer more occult explanations for the sailing stones.
"People always ask, 'What do you think causes them to move?' But if you try to explain, they don't always want to hear the answers," van Valkenburg said. "People like a mystery — they like an unanswered question."
www.livescience.com/37492-sailing-stones-death-valley-moving-rocks.html