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→ 14 Dec 12 at 6 pm
→ 14 Dec 12 at 6 pm
Stones don’t walk. Everyone knows it, at least not in the way that animals move. But a combination of factors may be responsible for the curious phenomenon of the stones that move - and one of the most famous places where this happens is in Racetrack Playa in Death Valley, California.
There’s dozens of enormous stones accompanied by traces that indicate their trajectories. The strange thing is that no one has ever managed to watch the “race” in action. However, some scientists were the Racetrack Playa determined to solve this riddle.
The first hypothesis was that the wind would be pushing the stones, since the spot are recorded currents of up to 240 km / h. However, these conditions are not able to move rocks up to 300 kg, as the heaviest found in Death Valley.
Then it was discovered that the water that comes down from the mountains, effect of melting snow, humidifies and creates ice at the base of the rocks during the night. Therefore, friction is reduced and the wind becomes more efficient. Thus, the stones can go and make their mark on the ground - we arrived at 1 km.
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→ 05 Sep 12 at 4 pm
→ 05 Sep 12 at 4 pm
These gorgeous photos of the geothermal pools in central Iceland were taken by Antony Spencer.
(via geologise)
