Moving Rock???

I dont know exactly where to post this, but i figured it was rather un normal.

'Deep in the heart of the California desert lies one of the natural world's most puzzling mysteries: the moving rocks of Death Valley'

its interesting all the same, take a look at the link see what you guys think:

flickr.com...

My first thoughts were something magnetic?

You know, that really is odd. Its sort of like hair when they say no one has seen it move - but on a much different scale. Surely theres got to be a reasonable explanantion

Yes its actually quite funny! How on earth can a 700 pound rock move itself, i must admit the picture looks legit; not to mention its been happening for so long, it would be interesting to see if anyone out there has heard of this before.

The moving rocks of Death Valley have been around for some time. I understand the 'moving' appears to happen overnight - and yes, there doesn't appear to be a unanimously accepted explanation for them.

One thing I read was that rains and mud were responsible: to avoid explaining it badly, I'll let you read more about it here.

As I searched up the mud/sliding rocks explanation for the Death Valley Rocks, I discovered this; apparently, there are little-known petroglyphs in Death Valley. The latter link has an article with images. Just thought it was interesting enough to share; Forgive me if it's slightly off-topic; moderators, do as you must.

P/S: Well, hey! I suppose I missed a valuable link in my google travails. Here you will find a video with some evidence to support the mud/sliding rocks theory I mentioned above. Hope this helps

[edit on 8/14/2007 by Mr Jackdaw]

I have been there many times as I like to 4 wheel and I love to be in the mojave desert as there is rarely anyone around for miles.

The race track valley is quite a site. These big rocks with massive trails. It is really quite a bizarre scene, as the rocks trails aren't all in the same direction either, in fact they are all over the place.

I know for a fact it gets windy as heck out there, this must play a factor on how the rocks produce a trail. Who knows how long it takes to produce a long trail tho?

A must see if you ever venture out that way.

Take care,

Why does no one see them move?
My first thought is they may move only when the area is flooded. This would remove witnesses. Perhaps they move only when they are submerged under water, or perhaps they move only when the area is drying out?
But we know they only move when the conditions are wet because the rock leaves mud tracks (in the now) dried mud.

Why might they move?
I noticed the soil has some very strange drying out cracks. When the water comes in the earth around the rock should turn to mud first, and the earth under the rock should remain hard for a while (like you normally expect). For a while this hard bit of mud under the rock would be a bit like a “mud island”. However because of the mud cracks (around the rock) water fall will into them, and from there underneath the “mud island” this would cause the “mud island” to become detached turning it into more like a “mud plate”. The wet soil underneath the mud plate would expand, and this would push both the “mud plate” and rock (on it) up. Soon the water will soak the mud plate turning it to mud, causing the rock to slowly sink down again. As it does this the rock should move once again (into whichever side of the rock is heaviest).

Against My Theory
This is just a theory I’ve come up with at the top of my head, and it would only produce extremely small movements pre-flooding of several centimetres at most. If the rock moves more than that then that’s a mystery. And it looks as though it might do so, as its tracks are so long (the length shouldn’t survive so many flooding’s should they?)
Also it seems the rocks only move when the mod is drying out, as there are drying out cracks in its mud tracks.

What I find odd is why don’t these moving rocks just sink? Is the mud (in water) somehow denser than the rock? Doesn’t seem likely but it’s the only explanation I can think of.

If the rocks move a lot at once
And if the rock is denser than the mud; then…
Perhaps there really is something super natural going on?

This might help you in your search proberly best of doing a quick search of ats or use google to find previous tipoics on the matter.

Rolling Rocks

Se7

I'm sure I read somewhere that the place gets a layer of frost at night. If that's the case and there's a strong gust of wind it might just help move them a mm or two every night.

[edit on 14-8-2007 by wigit]

I posted about this some time ago and there is good evidence that they move when it rains.

The water on the muddy surface creates a frictionless surface which allows the rocks to move some distance either from the wind or a slight incline. There was a time lapse video of it but im tired at the min and can't be bothered to search for it lol.

Maybe someone else can find it?

Yeah, this has been discussed a couple of times in the past. Basically this is what I theorize is happening:

1. clay gets slicker than snot when it gets wet, so the friction coefficient between the rocks and the wet clay surface drop through the floor.

2. the clay, if saturated, becomes an extremely high yield point Bingham Plastic.

Now, when you take both 1 and 2 you get the situation where any external force (such as a strong wind) will more likely push the rock sideways than let it sink because you have to overcome the high yield point of the clay in order to sink the rock, but you only have to pass on a low friction surface to move across it.

Hope that helps.

[edit on 8-14-2007 by Valhall]

Couldn't have said it better myself, ha. Thanks for explaining that much better than I did!

Dang giant hermit crabs taking our large rocks....whats next?

www.hashemian.com...

Thanks for the responses appreciated, clearly theres a logical explanation for this, appears to be more natural then super natural; I personally concluded it must have something to do with the strong winds and slippery/muddy surface, was interesting to investigate and get a number of opinions all the same, thanks for the input!

Okay. So if the heavy rains, advancing water and high winds are enough to slide a 700 pound rock across the lake bed, why are there still well defined paths behind that rock decades later? Shouldn't the force that moves the rock be more than enough to erase it's path through the mud?

Yea interesting theory, however lets say it didnt rain, and there were strong winds, this would allow the tracks, and for arguement sack, if i did rain for long amounts of time, i would assume the swamp? would slowly fill with water, Im guessing these events would only happen at certain times of the year.

This might help explain a little better



Im not aware of any of these trails being there for decades tuning spork. Where did you hear that?

[edit on 17-8-2007 by fiftyfifty]

mod edit to fix link
We Now Have YouTube and Google Video BBcode and ATS!

[edit on 17-8-2007 by sanctum]

Well this is weird, a few days ago i saw an episode of spongebob riding on a stone through bikinibottom but that is a cartoon.

I saw in the zoo an tiger that was pushing an rock in his cage to all corners. maybe there are animals there in the desert that do that to?
That is the most possible explenation for me.

yeah I've heard of a couple of these places where the laws of physiscs dont seem to always apply. I've heared stories of rocks rolling up hills, floating. People reapearing where they had not been wlaking. The most peculiar was one story from the east coast of a man emerging out of thin air in "primitive" looking attire. What ever that means, but interesting enough. Gate ways anyone???

[edit on 17-8-2007 by newyorkee]

Well this is weird, a few days ago i saw an episode of spongebob riding on a stone through bikinibottom but that is a cartoon.

I saw in the zoo an tiger that was pushing an rock in his cage to all corners. maybe there are animals there in the desert that do that to?
That is the most possible explenation for me.

For those of you who advocate the "water" based theory I would point out that the average yearly rainfall for Death Valley is only 2 inches.

Vas