Photo: Getty Images
How ordinary stones manage to
"sail" over the surface of Racetrack Playa in Death Valley National Park is
a mystery people have tried to solve since 1915, when a prospector and his wife
noticed tracks that seemed to indicate that the stones had somehow traveled
across the dry earth. Short of cosmic intervention, the stones required
terrestrial forces to move them.
But what forces? The current prevailing theory about the "sailing stones" of
Racetrack Playa, presented by a team of physicists in 2011, involves ice that
forms around the stones, causing them to move and to leave a trail in their
wake. Many visitors still hope for a more mystical explanation.
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