Moving rocks of the Racetrack Playa

From TinWiki.org

A Dancing Rock on the Racetrack Playa

The Moving or Dancing Rocks of the Racetrack Playa are a unique phenomenon on this Earth. Nestled deep within Death Valley National Park, the Racetrack Playa is a dried lake bed. It is 2.8 miles long and 1.3 miles wide. The Playa is so flat that its northern end is only about 2 inches higher than its southern end. If you were to go there, you would notice that the lake bed is completely dry for most of the year. The ground is caked dry and cracked. However, going to the southern end where there is a cliff of dolomite you will witness something startling.

The dolomite presumably crumbles, and all sizes of rocks and boulders fall onto the Playa. And this is where the mystery really begins. The rocks "move" around on the lake bed. This is evidenced by the long trails they leave furrowed in the clay. Some are long and straight, and over half a mile long. Others wander around whimsically, seemingly moving without purpose in crooked paths or circles.

1 Theories
2 Related Discussion Threads on AboveTopSecret.com
3 External Links

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Theories

For a long time, no one could really explain why the rocks move by themselves. There were all kinds of theories professed, but as a new theory arose, it was soon shot down. The phenomenon was noticed over a hundred years ago by explorers and gold miners, but was not really studied scientifically until about 1948. To this day, the reason for their wayward ways has not been fully explained. Indeed, no one has ever been able to see the rocks while they are moving.

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Ice Sheet Wind

The main theory that is accepted today is that the rocks are moved along ice sheets by the wind. Ice sheets form on the lake bed, with the wind moving the ice and rocks as it blows. Though it is the commonly accepted idea, it is only a theory.

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Ice Sheet Contraction

Another idea is that ice sheets form on the lake bed in the winter, with sections breaking off and then squeezed and pushed along, thus providing the much needed force to push a 700 pound boulder for 3/4 of a mile in a winding, twisting path. The theory though faces several inconvenient facts. For one thing, while many rock trails do seem to travel parallel to one another, they in truth do not, and one will abruptly turn away from the other, at seemingly random intervals. In the fifties an experiment was performed to test the theory, and proved conclusively that the ice sheet was not moving the rocks.

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Rain

Finally there was the idea that the rain would fall, which makes the Playa very slick, and then wind would blow very hard and move the rocks. This theory cannot explain all of the cases, as the rocks are furrowing through the mud, not gliding frictionlessly along the surface.

Modern technology could easily resolve the matter once and for all. GPS trackers placed on the rocks as well as weather monitoring stations to record the atmospheric conditions could lay the mystery to rest. But the entire Death Valley is now a national park, an International Biosphere Reserve designated by the United Nations, and carefully protected. So it is illegal to disturb the natural landscape in any manner. This includes placing monitoring devices on the rocks. After all, the park is there for everyone to enjoy, not just the scientists.

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