22 Miraculously Awesome Rare Natural Phenomena That Occur on Earth
10. Sailing Stones
Location: Little Bonnie Claire Playa in Nevada and most notably Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park, California
Sailing stones refer to a geological phenomenon where rocks move and inscribe long tracks along a smooth valley floor without human or animal intervention.These stones can be found on the floor of the playa with long trails behind them. Somehow the stones slide across the playa, cutting a furrow in the sediment as they move. Experiments show that moving of stones requires a rare combination of events. First, the playa fills with water, which must be deep enough to form floating ice during cold winter nights but shallow enough to expose the stones. As nighttime temperatures plummet, the pond freezes to form thin sheets of ‘windowpane’ ice, which must be thin enough to move freely but thick enough to maintain strength. On sunny days, the ice begins to melt and break up into large floating panels, which light winds drive across the playa, pushing rocks in front of them and leaving trails in the soft mud below the surface. Several other theories have been proposed for this phenomena but none have been able to explain it clearly. Some of the stones weigh more than 300 kg. That makes the question: “what powerful force could be moving them?”
Location: Little Bonnie Claire Playa in Nevada and most notably Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park, California
Sailing stones refer to a geological phenomenon where rocks move and inscribe long tracks along a smooth valley floor without human or animal intervention.These stones can be found on the floor of the playa with long trails behind them. Somehow the stones slide across the playa, cutting a furrow in the sediment as they move. Experiments show that moving of stones requires a rare combination of events. First, the playa fills with water, which must be deep enough to form floating ice during cold winter nights but shallow enough to expose the stones. As nighttime temperatures plummet, the pond freezes to form thin sheets of ‘windowpane’ ice, which must be thin enough to move freely but thick enough to maintain strength. On sunny days, the ice begins to melt and break up into large floating panels, which light winds drive across the playa, pushing rocks in front of them and leaving trails in the soft mud below the surface. Several other theories have been proposed for this phenomena but none have been able to explain it clearly. Some of the stones weigh more than 300 kg. That makes the question: “what powerful force could be moving them?”
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29 January 2023
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