Really.............................................
Mystery of how rocks move across Death Valley lake bed solved
Mystery of how rocks move across Death Valley lake bed solved
Mystery of Moving Rocks Solved!
- Thread starter ski3pin
- Start date
OP
OP
Isn't that what you would suspect how they moved.
Nice to know that the "brain" people have agreed with us.
Frank
Nice to know that the "brain" people have agreed with us.
Frank
simimike
Contributors
Horse feathers! My friends and I move them around when we're not busy making crop circles. I mean who are you going to believe, Intelligent well educated scientist following sound scientific principles or Me?
Mike
Mike
Mike My money is on you. When do you do it?simimike said:
Frank
I was thinking Menehunes... Mike, by any chance are you short and from Hawaii?
Mr 3pin, very cool!
Mr 3pin, very cool!
Very interesting. 
I wonder if the same process moves the rocks across the Alvord playa, which i photographed a couple of years ago?
One would assume that the same mechanism works on all mysterious moving-across-playa rocks.
That mechanism -- ice -- means that this likely wouldn't occur in dry lakebeds that never freeze.
According to this Wikipedia entry, there are a few other areas known, besides the Racetrack, where these have been observed.
I wonder if the same process moves the rocks across the Alvord playa, which i photographed a couple of years ago?
One would assume that the same mechanism works on all mysterious moving-across-playa rocks.
That mechanism -- ice -- means that this likely wouldn't occur in dry lakebeds that never freeze.
According to this Wikipedia entry, there are a few other areas known, besides the Racetrack, where these have been observed.
simimike
Contributors
Thanks Frank, What we do is skulk around the shore line in late winter waiting for the right conditions. Then when it looks like the ice is just about to melt we walk out on the ice so we don't leave foot prints and push them around. The 200 lb ones can be a real bear though.Casa Escarlata Robles Too said:
Mike
Smokecreek1
Smokecreek1
got to go with mark on this one! pictures say it all.
Smoke
Smoke
I have had the fortune of meeting Mike. My take is that he is an upright citizen and honest man. Therefore, I have no choice but to believe his explanation and reject this as just another wishful theory.
simimike
Contributors
Well, lets just take a close look at this picture. Just opposite of Mark's name you see where guy pushing the rock slipped and fell. And if you follow the trail you'll see a "Y". It looks like foot prints. Amateurs!MarkBC said:Very interesting.
I wonder if the same process moves the rocks across the Alvord playa, which i photographed a couple of years ago?
One would assume that the same mechanism works on all mysterious moving-across-playa rocks.
That mechanism -- ice -- means that this likely wouldn't occur in dry lakebeds that never freeze.
According to this Wikipedia entry, there are a few other areas known, besides the Racetrack, where these have been observed.
Mike
takesiteasy
Senior Member
Ya, just more junk science if ya ask me. First they tell ya the earth is warmin, then they tell ya ice is pushing rocks around the desert. Nope, don't believe it. It's got to be aliens! I guess I'm a "Movin Rock Denier."
OP
OP
Okay, okay, okay, I'll be a team player and have moved over to the simimike side; an odd abstraction of "peer review".
highz
Retreaded
Don't cave in, Ski! Sounds more like "peer-pressure review" to me
But I'm liking both the article and the banter. And I'm wondering if simimike has been out my way lately shaving coyotes and calling in Chupacabra stories to the news outlets?
But I'm liking both the article and the banter. And I'm wondering if simimike has been out my way lately shaving coyotes and calling in Chupacabra stories to the news outlets?
Someone owes Mike an apology. Credit where it is due!
I'm still thinking we have Menehunes in WTW...
Foy
Resident Geologist
That is completely cool! Geologists have always been stumped by the windspeeds needed to move the rocks and the absence of other evidence of same (ripple marks, silt horizons, etc). So it's the ice sheets, which require much less wind to move them while their kinetic energy moves rocks weighing hundreds of pounds, and which protect the mud surface from being noticably affected by even the lighter winds. That must have been incredible for the Norris cousins to see.
Reminds me of a Sedimentation and Stratigraphy field trip to the Florida Keys in the early 1970s. We were in a lime mud lagoon and it was above water level except at high tide. The tide was coming in (rising). As the first few wavelets rolled across, they ripped up postage stamp-sized pieces of soft lime mud. After the wavelet passed, the pieces were deposited atop undisturbed areas of lime mud. Our Sed/Strat professor said "you have just witnessed the formation of a carbonate deposit known as an edgewise conglomerate", as the little sheets of mud were dropped down willy-nilly, and mostly on edge relative to the horizontal plane of the undisturbed lime mud surface. At some later time, subsequent deposition over them will have preserved the "jackstrawed" pieces and they look like a conglomerate in outcrop and hand sample. Pretty cool to see the process in person.
Foy
Reminds me of a Sedimentation and Stratigraphy field trip to the Florida Keys in the early 1970s. We were in a lime mud lagoon and it was above water level except at high tide. The tide was coming in (rising). As the first few wavelets rolled across, they ripped up postage stamp-sized pieces of soft lime mud. After the wavelet passed, the pieces were deposited atop undisturbed areas of lime mud. Our Sed/Strat professor said "you have just witnessed the formation of a carbonate deposit known as an edgewise conglomerate", as the little sheets of mud were dropped down willy-nilly, and mostly on edge relative to the horizontal plane of the undisturbed lime mud surface. At some later time, subsequent deposition over them will have preserved the "jackstrawed" pieces and they look like a conglomerate in outcrop and hand sample. Pretty cool to see the process in person.
Foy
Well, Menehunes are said to live in the deep forests and valleys away from humans. We tend to buy our campers to do the same. Coincidence??? WS may be on to something.
SunMan
King Taco
Thanks for posting this. Interesting read.
OP
OP
Research through the gallery has uncovered further WTW influence over the movement of rocks on Racetrack Playa. When things get to out of hand out there, Mrs. Ted can settle it down.
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