Magic Rocks in the Mojave Desert

Or Desert Sailing Fun

Death Valley “Sailing Stone” leaving

Death Valley is a desert valley located in Eastern California. Situated within the Mojave Desert, it features the lowest elevation (286 ft. / 86 m below sea level) in Badwater; driest location with less than 2 inches (1.58 inches / 40 mm)  of rain fall per year, and the hottest (134 °F / 56.7 °C at Furnace Creek) reliably recorded tempter located in all North America.

Sailing stones, sliding rocks, and moving rocks as they are often called are geological marvels wherein rocks move in long tracks along a smooth valley floor without human or animal intervention. Such events occur and have been studied in a number of places around Racetrack Playa (a playa is a mud flat) in the Death Valley Desert; there the numbers as well as the length of “travel grooves” are obvious as is shone in the image above. The force behind their movement has yet to be confirmed and is the subject of ongoing research.

The stones reportedly move every two or three years and most tracks develop over a three or four year period of time. Stones that have rough bottoms leave straight parallel lines while those with smooth bottoms often wander about leaving a smooth but clear path. The stones sometimes turn or flip over, exposing a different edge to the ground thus leaving a dissimilar track in the stone's wake.

Trails / tracks differ in both direction and length. Rocks that start moving next to each other may travel parallel for a while, then abruptly change direction to the left, right, or even back the same direction it came from. Trail lengths also vary; two similarly sized and shaped rocks may travel uniformly for a while, then, for no apparent reason one may move ahead or stop.

These events were not documented until 1948, there have been various explanations placed forward over the years that have ranged from the supernatural to the very complex. Most explanations favored by geologists speculate that strong winds during times when the mud-flat is wet are at least in part responsible. But some of these stones weigh a good bit more than a human, so how could that be possible?

Not to take away the mystery, still the most widely held theory that I could find about why the rocks move about is that during rain, heavy fog or dew, a slick, mud surface (sometimes mingled with ice crystals in winter) forms on the surface of the mud flat which allows the rocks to slide around during heavy winds. Other theories and legends that the rocks are alive or that little gnomes are playing shuffleboard are as yet unfounded. Several of the racing rocks are as heavy as 700 lbs and have been tracked as moving more than 2,500 feet or 790 meters.

The good news may be that they are thought to be quite slow, though no visual record actually exists of a rock in action, in short, no human has even witnessed the event, a healthy person can most likely out run them if the need arises.

Sources …

http://www.toddshikingguide.com/Hikes/California/DeathValley/DV2.htm         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Valley