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Name : Racetrack Playa
fix : Death Valley National Park , California
One of the “sailing stones” that has moved across Racetrack Playa, leaving a track with a sharp bend in it.
Coordinates:36.68167631035219 , -117.56270022604872
Why it ’s incredible : The playa is home to " sailing stones " that seem to move of their own volition .
Racetrack Playa is a ironical , flat lakebed in California that is litter with 100 of mysterious , move rocks . Also known as the " sailing stones , " these rock candy leave tracks stretching up to 1,500 feet ( 460 meters ) long as they drift across the airfoil seemingly without cause .
A picture taken during the study shows dozens of sailing stones and their tracks, with some showing parallel lines and congruent movements.
The glide stones have puzzled researchers since the mid-1900s , but until 2013 , no one had really seen or record the rocks go . It was absolved , however , that they sporadically interchange locating , because they left grooves in the ground behind them . Remarkably , some of the Racetrack Playa careen weigh around 700 pounds ( 320 kilo ) .
In astudy published in 2014 , scientists finally captured the motion of the sailing stones . The researchers fitted 15 tilt with motion - trigger GPS instruments and installed a time - reversion photographic camera to monitor them . The team also congeal up a high - resolving atmospheric condition place to pick up tiny edition in wind velocity .
The experimentation supply answers in a surprisingly short amount of clip , given that the sailing stones can stay in one spot for more than a tenner at a time without moving . Between December 2013 and January 2014 — just two years into the undertaking , which start in 2011 — the investigator abide by more than 60 Rock move at speeds of 7 to 16 feet per minute ( 2 to 5 meters per second ) .
Related:‘This is weird ' : Experts ' shocked ' by record - stop seniority of Death Valley ’s phantom lakeThe data showed that a rare pattern of rain and wind was behind the sailing stones ' motion . While scientist already suspected that wind push the rocks , it was unclear how some of the giving boulders became sack and why the movements were so sporadic . Another unanswered question was why multiple rocks , but not all , showed perfectly parallel tracks , include some with synchronic abrupt go and volte-face in direction .
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The subject area let on that the sailing stones move when a tenuous , lubricating " windowpane " layer of internal-combustion engine manakin on the playa at dark after rainfall . The morning Sunday warms and start the ice , forge float board that shove several rock’n’roll along at once in a direction and at speed specify by the wind .
The rock and roll come from the border mountains , cotton on down onto Racetrack Playa as a outcome of corroding . They are made of dolomite and syenite , according to theNational Park Foundation . The playa , which stretch about 3 nautical mile ( 4.8 kilometers ) long and 2 statute mile ( 3.2 km ) wide , work around 10,000 years ago , when climatical changes get an ancient lake to vaporise , leaving behind a vast expanse of clay .
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