Is it a horseshoe crab? A hovercraft?
Welcome to Racetrack Playa in Death Valley, California. For today's fascinating factiod, I bring you the mystery of rocks in motion. No one is quite sure how these rocks move around, but it is certain that no human intervention is involved. I love the strange and erratic trailsleft behind in the cracked clay.
Scientists have been studying these moving rocks for years and postulate the force behind the locomotion is wind. During brief periods of rain, the surrounding mountains flood this uber-flat playa, and the clay particles turn into a slick surface for the rocks to skate across. Clay particles are flat in nature, similar to the shape of a lentil. When the particles are stacked atop eachother, these particles create a perfect condition for the rocks to be pushed along by stormy downdrafts. Notice that there are no human footprints here.
To learn more about these rocks, go to the geology.com website. If the wind can move these rocks, imagine the potential energy that could be produced to serve our planet.
