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- Aug 7, 2001
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A slow burner, this one;
Back in 2009...
(Until another couple of years have passed, when somebody else will anounce the problem is finally solved! )
Back in 2009...
In 2010, Mytho wrote...rynner2 said:Another article, but nothing really new, it seems:
Real-life rolling stones creep across Death Valley in California
Scientists believe the pebbly phenomenon is caused by a melting-pot of specific weather conditions.
Studies suggest a combination of 90mph winds, ice formations at night and thin layers of wet clay on the surface of the desert all combine to push them along.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthn ... fornia.htm l
Now someone has done just that:I'm a little surprised that nobody has set up a webcam or time-lapse camera. That would help to shed light on the mystery.
So, move along now, nothing to see here...United States: 'Sailing rocks' mystery finally solved
By News from Elsewhere...
...media reports from around the world, found by BBC Monitoring
Scientists have finally solved the mystery of how rocks can move across the flat ground of a dry lake bed in Death Valley, California.
Visitors have long been puzzled by the sight of boulder tracks criss-crossing a dusty bowl known as the Racetrack Playa in Death Valley National Park. But two researchers now say the rocks - which can sometimes be heavy and large - are propelled along by thin, clear sheets of ice on breezy, sunny days. They call it "ice shove". "I'm amazed by the irony of it all," paleobiologist James Norris tells the LA Times. "In a place where rainfall averages two inches a year, rocks are being shoved around by mechanisms typically seen in arctic climes."
The findings are based on a lucky accident by James Norris and his cousin Richard Norris - while they were studying the sliding rock phenomenon. They actually witnessed the boulders moving in December when they went to check their time-lapse cameras in the valley. "There was a pop-pop-crackle all over the place in front of us and I said to my cousin, 'This is it'," Richard Norris says in the science journal Nature. They watched some 60 rocks sail slowly by, leaving the well-known snaking trails in the ground. "A baby can get going a lot faster than your average rock," Norris notes. The rocks also don't slide around very often - scientists estimate only a few minutes out of a million - which is why the event has not been noticed before.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-fr ... e-28989520
(Until another couple of years have passed, when somebody else will anounce the problem is finally solved! )