On a dried-up basin bed in Death Valley are dozens of rocks that accept puzzled us for decades. The rocks accept anniversary larboard a arenaceous trail, affirmation of some alien force affective them forward. Scientists accept now finally empiric the rocks moving and acclimatized on an explanation: Attenuate ice and a affable breeze.
Speculation about the agent of these sailing stones has ranged from hurricane-force apprehension to glace algae films. In contrast, the rocks are in fact getting pushed about by aerial bedding of ice skating on sand, a band-aid that's just affable and non-grandiose abundant to be true. The abstraction doesn't appear out of the blue; back in 2011, a scientist appear his ice bulk archetypal afterwards experimenting with beach in a Tupperware container.
What is absolutely arresting is that in a study appear today in PLOS ONE, scientists empiric the rocks in fact affective for the aboriginal time. The accomplished agreement in fact started four years ago, if a aggregation of scientists—including our above Tupperware experimenter—set up cameras and in fact GPS-tracked rocks on the broiled lakebed of Racetrack Playa. They had no abstraction if the cameras and GPS would in fact abduction anything.
A GPS-tagged bedrock scooting on Racetrack Playa. Credit Jim Norris
Then in December 2013, a absolute storm of ice and wind set hundreds of rocks sliding forth the lakebed. The advisers empiric the arise of a attenuate band of ice that had formed on Racetrack Playa. A ablaze but abiding wind again pushed the ice pieces around, area they would accrue abaft rocks and advance them forward. The rocks catholic as abundant as 200 anxiety and as fast as 10 mph. For the aboriginal time, this was all captured on camera.
Image credit: Jim Norris
But is this the accomplished story? The scientists point out that the largest boulders didn't budge during this absolute wind storm—there could be addition account for how they move. There could still be mysteries yet at Racetrack Playa. [PLOS]
Top image: Nagel Photography/Shutterstock
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