The Mystery of Death Valley in California
Death Valley's strange "sailing stones" have perplexed researchers for years. The large stones appear to migrate over Racetrack Playa, a dried lake bed in Death Valley National Park, California, leaving a path in the cracked mud behind them. Interplanetary invaders, magnetic forces, and pranksters have all been suggested as causes for the apparent movement of the stones. No one has observed the rocks move, which adds to the mystery.
Ralph Lorenz, a NASA scientist who studies weather in distant worlds, became interested in Death Valley in 2006. Lorenz was especially interested in comparing the climatic conditions in Death Valley to those surrounding Ontario Lacus, Titan's large hydrocarbon lake.
He became interested in Racetrack Playa's intriguing sailing stones while investigating Death Valley. Lorenz made a kitchen-table imitation out of an ordinary Tupperware container to show how the boulders might glide across the lake bed's surface. He became interested in Racetrack Playa's intriguing sailing stones while investigating Death Valley. Lorenz made a kitchen-table imitation out of an ordinary Tupperware container
to show how the boulders might glide across the lake bed's surface.
Lorenz told Smithsonian.com, "I placed a tiny rock in a Tupperware container and filled it with water until there was an inch of water and a small piece of rock poking through. To get the ice-bound rock in a large tray of water with sand at the bottom to move across the water, all he had to do was blow softly on it.
The ice-encrusted stone-carved a path in the sand at the tray's bottom as it moved. Lorenz devised his brilliant experiment by observing how ice buoyancy causes large rocks to float along tidal beaches in the Arctic Sea when they are covered in ice.
Resources
Death Valley's sailing stones mystery SOLVED. https://weeklyrecess.com/article/death-valleys-sailing-stones-mystery-solved
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