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| The Racetrack Playa is a place in Death Valley National Park in California USA. It is a dry lake bed 1130 metres above sea level and some 4.5 Km long. The bed is also incredibly flat with the height
differential between the north and south ends being a mere 4cm.When it rains, the dark Dolomite mountains that surround the Racetrack funnel the water onto the lake bed, creating a shallow lake. The incredibly hot temperatures of the area quickly evaporate the lake and cracking the mud to leave a fascinatingly regular mosaic type pattern on the dried lake bed floor.
The track lengths of some of the "Sailing Stones" are incredible. What are "Sailing Stones"? The lake bed is also home to some rocks - But these aren't just ordinary rocks - These rocks move. Nobody has ever seen them move, and nobody knows how or why they move - but move they do. They are known as "Sailing Stones", and when they move, they leave trails and tracks behind them, sometimes hundreds of metres long. Occasionally the tracks take the form of furrows which have been gouged out of the surface mud. Sometimes they will move with other rocks in parallel. Sometimes one or more will change direction abruptly and for no apparent reason. Sometimes the lines are as straight as a rule, other times they curve in large majestic sweeps.The rocks are not all tiny tiddlers either. Some Sailing Stones can weigh as much as a man. the weight of the individual rocks, or the resistance of the surface they are travelling on seems to have no effect on the Sailing Stones ability to move, or the distance they can cover. |
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science