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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Autores principales:	Richard D Norris, James M Norris, Ralph D Lorenz, Jib Ray, Brian Jackson
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/100993b2c80048bea786b3695c1899c4
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:100993b2c80048bea786b3695c1899c42021-11-25T06:03:00ZSliding rocks on Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park: first observation of rocks in motion.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0105948https://doaj.org/article/100993b2c80048bea786b3695c1899c42014-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/25162535/pdf/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203The 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.Richard D NorrisJames M NorrisRalph D LorenzJib RayBrian JacksonPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 9, Iss 8, p e105948 (2014)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
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.
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
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://doaj.org/article/100993b2c80048bea786b3695c1899c4
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Sliding rocks on Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park: first observation of rocks in motion.

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