Sliding Rocks on Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park: First Observation of Rocks in Motion
The engraved trails of rocks on the nearly flat, dry mud surface of Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park, have excited speculation about the movement mechanism since the 1940s. Rock movement has been variously attributed to high winds, liquid water, ice, or ice flotation, but has not been pre...
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ftboisestateu:oai:scholarworks.boisestate.edu:physics_facpubs-1155 2023-11-12T04:18:44+01:00 Sliding Rocks on Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park: First Observation of Rocks in Motion Norris, Richard D. Norris, James M. Lorenz, Ralph D. Ray, Jib Jackson, Brian 2014-08-27T07:00:00Z application/pdf https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/physics_facpubs/155 https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/context/physics_facpubs/article/1155/viewcontent/Jackson___Sliding_Rocks.pdf unknown ScholarWorks https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/physics_facpubs/155 https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/context/physics_facpubs/article/1155/viewcontent/Jackson___Sliding_Rocks.pdf This document was originally published by PLOS in PLoS ONE . This work is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Details regarding the use of this work can be found at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0105948 Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations ice sheet lakes mud petrology ponds sea ice weather stations wind Physics text 2014 ftboisestateu 2023-10-27T00:13:05Z The engraved trails of rocks on the nearly flat, dry mud surface of Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park, have excited speculation about the movement mechanism since the 1940s. Rock movement has been variously attributed to high winds, liquid water, ice, or ice flotation, but has not been previously observed in action. We recorded the first direct scientific observation of rock movements using GPS-instrumented rocks and photography, in conjunction with a weather station and time-lapse cameras. The largest observed rock movement involved >60 rocks on December 20, 2013 and some instrumented rocks moved up to 224 m between December 2013 and January 2014 in multiple move events. In contrast with previous hypotheses of powerful winds or thick ice floating rocks off the playa surface, the process of rock movement that we have observed occurs when the thin, 3 to 6 mm, “windowpane” ice sheet covering the playa pool begins to melt in late morning sun and breaks up under light winds of ~4–5 m/s. Floating ice panels 10 s of meters in size push multiple rocks at low speeds of 2–5 m/min. along trajectories determined by the direction and velocity of the wind as well as that of the water flowing under the ice. Text Ice Sheet Sea ice Boise State University: Scholar Works PLoS ONE 9 8 e105948 |
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Open Polar |
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Boise State University: Scholar Works |
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ftboisestateu |
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unknown |
topic |
ice sheet lakes mud petrology ponds sea ice weather stations wind Physics |
spellingShingle |
ice sheet lakes mud petrology ponds sea ice weather stations wind Physics Norris, Richard D. Norris, James M. Lorenz, Ralph D. Ray, Jib Jackson, Brian Sliding Rocks on Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park: First Observation of Rocks in Motion |
topic_facet |
ice sheet lakes mud petrology ponds sea ice weather stations wind Physics |
description |
The engraved trails of rocks on the nearly flat, dry mud surface of Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park, have excited speculation about the movement mechanism since the 1940s. Rock movement has been variously attributed to high winds, liquid water, ice, or ice flotation, but has not been previously observed in action. We recorded the first direct scientific observation of rock movements using GPS-instrumented rocks and photography, in conjunction with a weather station and time-lapse cameras. The largest observed rock movement involved >60 rocks on December 20, 2013 and some instrumented rocks moved up to 224 m between December 2013 and January 2014 in multiple move events. In contrast with previous hypotheses of powerful winds or thick ice floating rocks off the playa surface, the process of rock movement that we have observed occurs when the thin, 3 to 6 mm, “windowpane” ice sheet covering the playa pool begins to melt in late morning sun and breaks up under light winds of ~4–5 m/s. Floating ice panels 10 s of meters in size push multiple rocks at low speeds of 2–5 m/min. along trajectories determined by the direction and velocity of the wind as well as that of the water flowing under the ice. |
format |
Text |
author |
Norris, Richard D. Norris, James M. Lorenz, Ralph D. Ray, Jib Jackson, Brian |
author_facet |
Norris, Richard D. Norris, James M. Lorenz, Ralph D. Ray, Jib Jackson, Brian |
author_sort |
Norris, Richard D. |
title |
Sliding Rocks on Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park: First Observation of Rocks in Motion |
title_short |
Sliding Rocks on Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park: First Observation of Rocks in Motion |
title_full |
Sliding Rocks on Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park: First Observation of Rocks in Motion |
title_fullStr |
Sliding Rocks on Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park: First Observation of Rocks in Motion |
title_full_unstemmed |
Sliding Rocks on Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park: First Observation of Rocks in Motion |
title_sort |
sliding rocks on racetrack playa, death valley national park: first observation of rocks in motion |
publisher |
ScholarWorks |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/physics_facpubs/155 https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/context/physics_facpubs/article/1155/viewcontent/Jackson___Sliding_Rocks.pdf |
genre |
Ice Sheet Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Ice Sheet Sea ice |
op_source |
Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations |
op_relation |
https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/physics_facpubs/155 https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/context/physics_facpubs/article/1155/viewcontent/Jackson___Sliding_Rocks.pdf |
op_rights |
This document was originally published by PLOS in PLoS ONE . This work is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Details regarding the use of this work can be found at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0105948 |
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PLoS ONE |
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9 |
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8 |
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e105948 |
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1782335323676606464 |