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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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:100993b2c80048bea786b3695c1899c4 2023-05-15T16:41:04+02:00 Sliding rocks on Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park: first observation of rocks in motion. Richard D Norris James M Norris Ralph D Lorenz Jib Ray Brian Jackson 2014-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0105948 https://doaj.org/article/100993b2c80048bea786b3695c1899c4 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/25162535/pdf/?tool=EBI https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0105948 https://doaj.org/article/100993b2c80048bea786b3695c1899c4 PLoS ONE, Vol 9, Iss 8, p e105948 (2014) Medicine R Science Q article 2014 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0105948 2022-12-31T13:42:47Z 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. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ice Sheet Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles PLoS ONE 9 8 e105948 |
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Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Medicine R Science Q |
spellingShingle |
Medicine R Science Q Richard D Norris James M Norris Ralph D Lorenz Jib Ray Brian Jackson Sliding rocks on Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park: first observation of rocks in motion. |
topic_facet |
Medicine R Science Q |
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 |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Richard D Norris James M Norris Ralph D Lorenz Jib Ray Brian Jackson |
author_facet |
Richard D Norris James M Norris Ralph D Lorenz Jib Ray Brian Jackson |
author_sort |
Richard D Norris |
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 |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0105948 https://doaj.org/article/100993b2c80048bea786b3695c1899c4 |
genre |
Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Ice Sheet |
op_source |
PLoS ONE, Vol 9, Iss 8, p e105948 (2014) |
op_relation |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/25162535/pdf/?tool=EBI https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0105948 https://doaj.org/article/100993b2c80048bea786b3695c1899c4 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/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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1766031512201854976 |