Sailing Stone, Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park, California, USA

Sailing Stone, Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park, California, USA

Featured in “National Parks of the World” – June 2009.

Featured in “Rocks and Stones” – November 2009.

Here in one of the hottest places on earth, large rocks appear to race one another around a dry lake bed leaving long trails behind them and small piles of dried mud in front of them. No one has seen them move but the evidence shows that they do…somehow.

The practical theory is that the combination of seasonal heavy rains and very high speed winds can push these rocks, sometimes weighing as much as the average person, across the slippery muddy surface of the usually dry lake. On cold winter nights, sheets of ice probably also contribute to the movement of these “sailing stones.”

[Wikipedia entry – Racetrack Playa]

[U.S. National Park Service website]

Copyright © 2004 Brian W. Schaller – All rights reserved. Copies, reproductions and altered versions are not permitted.

Sailing Stone, Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park, California, USA belongs to the following groups:

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