I found this while noodling around on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_stones
Why do the stones march? Where are they going?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_stones
Why do the stones march? Where are they going?
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Every time I go to Death Valley, I wish I could go to the racetrack. Unfortunately, it's supposed to be rather difficult to get there without 4WD. Still, I'll make it out there one of these days. Simply too cool to miss out. That panorama in the wiki entry is amazing!
Aaaaand enter crackpot theories on how the rocks move...
Aaaaand enter crackpot theories on how the rocks move...
Has anyone picked them up and moved them about to see if they'll change trajectory or do they go back to the same path they initially were following?
I'm surprised the winds which can move the rocks doesn't blow the rocks trail away... that's the "supernatural" or weird part of it to me. I like to say weird since it doesn't imply anything but uncommon.
Do the Native Americans from that area have any folklore about them?
I'm surprised the winds which can move the rocks doesn't blow the rocks trail away... that's the "supernatural" or weird part of it to me. I like to say weird since it doesn't imply anything but uncommon.
Do the Native Americans from that area have any folklore about them?
Wind? Ice? Pfffh.
Clearly they are the result of extra planetary visitors who millennia ago installed a grid of subterranean magnetic fields under the “racetrack” and then using an unknown material which only APPEARS to be dolomite (but is actually extraterrestrial in nature) were made to appear like normal rocks which run on this grid as signaling markers. These signaling markers are attuned to the unique magnetic fields generated by the grid so that the movement and positioning of the rocks is actually the result of a controller diverting the field polarity of different areas of the grid to make the markers move in a particular pattern used as a complex coordinating system whose message is only perceived by aerial visitors with the equipment to detect the very narrow wavelength emitted frequency from the rocks and use it like echolocation to function as a rudimentary landing system to coordinate landings and takeoffs, kinda like traffic control and the guys with the yellow flags at the airports...only with rocks...and UFOS...
Clearly they are the result of extra planetary visitors who millennia ago installed a grid of subterranean magnetic fields under the “racetrack” and then using an unknown material which only APPEARS to be dolomite (but is actually extraterrestrial in nature) were made to appear like normal rocks which run on this grid as signaling markers. These signaling markers are attuned to the unique magnetic fields generated by the grid so that the movement and positioning of the rocks is actually the result of a controller diverting the field polarity of different areas of the grid to make the markers move in a particular pattern used as a complex coordinating system whose message is only perceived by aerial visitors with the equipment to detect the very narrow wavelength emitted frequency from the rocks and use it like echolocation to function as a rudimentary landing system to coordinate landings and takeoffs, kinda like traffic control and the guys with the yellow flags at the airports...only with rocks...and UFOS...
guessing no one has seen them move cause wet clay is near impossible to drive on........when conditions are right for them to move they are conditions you really cant drive in on the flats.....wet clay turns into something akin to axle grease.......when the clay hills and flats around here get wet you better be out of the clay or your staying till it dries up or freezes.....a couple of the campsites where yah have to go down the hill to get to them have very large warning signs saying dont go down if yah dont have atleast 3 days worth of food cause 1/8 inch of rain means you aint getting back out till it dries.....
I assume the trail would wear away the further away you got from the rock, as with time, the wains WILL wash away the track it leaves. Amazing how winds can even move something as motionless as a rock 
this is quite an interesting phenomenon!
Now, if only someone could tell me why jumping beans jump...
this is quite an interesting phenomenon!
Now, if only someone could tell me why jumping beans jump...
jumping beans jump due to a grub living in the bean.......
if yah have seen the winds i have you would understand how wind can move a rock if the conditions are right.....ive seen 110mph straight line winds.....no tornado or hurricane involved.....everything lined up absolutely perfectly condition wise and most buildings for a 5 mile wide by 10 mile long swath were destroyed.....it happened to the north of where we were living at the time....ive seen tornadoes.....watching that thunderhead drop 5,000 feet in about 8 seconds was the scariest damn thing ive seen weather wise....
if yah have seen the winds i have you would understand how wind can move a rock if the conditions are right.....ive seen 110mph straight line winds.....no tornado or hurricane involved.....everything lined up absolutely perfectly condition wise and most buildings for a 5 mile wide by 10 mile long swath were destroyed.....it happened to the north of where we were living at the time....ive seen tornadoes.....watching that thunderhead drop 5,000 feet in about 8 seconds was the scariest damn thing ive seen weather wise....
I read something about them once and think those rocks are pretty cool. Like Ant, I've wondered if vibration has a role. Wet clay is sticky, but vibration makes its viscosity plummet (making it a thixotropic fluid). If the ground vibrates (or even a rock vibrates when the wind blows at the right speed and direction) then the clay is more like a skating rink and the rock might follow the wind.
In a related story, my wife and I were at a restaurant last week when my glass of water suddenly took off across the table. It didn't move more than a few inches, but the table was pretty level and there was no wind or any other obvious force to make it move. I didn't notice or think of it at the time, but I wondered afterwards if a truck had driven by and vibrated the place a little. It was a humid day, so the glass was pretty wet and any vibration might have made that glass move like the players in those old vibrating electric football games I remember in the 70s.
In a related story, my wife and I were at a restaurant last week when my glass of water suddenly took off across the table. It didn't move more than a few inches, but the table was pretty level and there was no wind or any other obvious force to make it move. I didn't notice or think of it at the time, but I wondered afterwards if a truck had driven by and vibrated the place a little. It was a humid day, so the glass was pretty wet and any vibration might have made that glass move like the players in those old vibrating electric football games I remember in the 70s.
