The Mojave Desert, stretching from Southern California into Northern Arizona and Nevada, is a high desert, and receives on average just a few inches of rain a year. Perhaps the best example of the extreme heat and aridity the Mojave Desert experiences is the region called Death Valley. With location names such as Furnace Creek, Death Valley is known for its brutal temperatures, once recording a North American record high temperature of 134 degrees Fahrenheit. But besides being known for its extreme weather conditions, Death Valley also contains many interesting geological phenomena, perhaps the most interesting and mysterious being the racetrack Playa.
The Racetrack Playa, is a dry lakebed which holds a mystery that has baffled scientists for over one hundred years. Boulders weighing up to 700 pounds have been mysteriously sliding across the flat lakebed, leaving behind trails that sometimes reach thousands of feet. Some boulders have straight trails, others have trails that curve, sometimes crossing themselves. No one has ever seen the boulders move, but GPS mapping provides evidence that the rocks have been sliding across the lakebed. Many theories have been proposed, including one that stated that the rocks were sliding due to gravity. This theory has been refuted by the discovery that one side of the lakebed is several centimeters higher than the other and that the rocks traveling in that direction are essentially sliding uphill. Scientists are considering many variables to this phenomenon, but research on the issue is difficult in the Racetrack Playa. The National Park service forbids the installation of cameras to record the movement of the rocks, and entry to the lakebed is prohibited during wet conditions because footprints would scar the landscape. This mystery will undoubtedly captivate scientists for years to come.
For more information on the sliding rocks of the racetrack Playa, visit
http://geology.com/articles/racetrack-playa-sliding-rocks.shtml
The Racetrack Playa, is a dry lakebed which holds a mystery that has baffled scientists for over one hundred years. Boulders weighing up to 700 pounds have been mysteriously sliding across the flat lakebed, leaving behind trails that sometimes reach thousands of feet. Some boulders have straight trails, others have trails that curve, sometimes crossing themselves. No one has ever seen the boulders move, but GPS mapping provides evidence that the rocks have been sliding across the lakebed. Many theories have been proposed, including one that stated that the rocks were sliding due to gravity. This theory has been refuted by the discovery that one side of the lakebed is several centimeters higher than the other and that the rocks traveling in that direction are essentially sliding uphill. Scientists are considering many variables to this phenomenon, but research on the issue is difficult in the Racetrack Playa. The National Park service forbids the installation of cameras to record the movement of the rocks, and entry to the lakebed is prohibited during wet conditions because footprints would scar the landscape. This mystery will undoubtedly captivate scientists for years to come.
For more information on the sliding rocks of the racetrack Playa, visit
http://geology.com/articles/racetrack-playa-sliding-rocks.shtml
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