death valley moving rocks

I 've been seeing on numerous tv documentaries the strange phenomenon of rocks in the death valley that move, large rocks, for hundreds of meters in certain cases...

anybody has an opinion on this...? perhaps gravitational or magnetic anomalies ?

I've seen a documentary about this as well It's a really odd phenomenon isn't it?

The one I saw tried to recreate the rocks moving with a scale model and they decided it happened because of very strong winds added to a small surface of frozen water on the sand. I have to say that it seemed to be a bit of a stretch to me where they were just desperate to prove that particular theory and so introduced more and more anomalous conditions to get the result they wanted.

I would love to know how these rocks move too

This guy has a couple of vids up.

I have seen exactly what is described but on a different dry lake. It is not just rocks but other debris can leave the trails also. The coolest was a coyote skull with a trail. Whatever the cause, I am sure it is related to the wind.

Does no one ever camp in Death Valley then?, it wouldn't seem to be beyond reason to set up a few cameras and a weather / wind speed monitoring device and just film them till you see this happen..
I wonder why non one has ever bothered

There's been a lot of speculation on the phenomenon, but I don't think there's consensus how it could happen.
Some threads on ATS and other places give theories and ideas, but no definite explanation.
Intriguing mystery.





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I’ve seen this in Oregon, and have pics somewhere. Some of The rocks are 2 ft in diameter, and leave trails several hundred feet long. My theory is that the rocks are frozen in 6in. of ice or so. When the spring thaws occur the lakebed fills with slightly more water, floating the ice layer, and partially lifting the rocks. At this point the Ice would lift the weight of the rocks, and the wind would blow the ice sheet around, causing the smooth trails in the mud.

I think the biggest factor is that most lake beds are a fine clay and get extremely slick when wet (even a small amount of moisture on the surface). I believe the ancient Egyptians used wet clay to lubricate the pathways for stone blocks. When the conditions are right, the rocks could be pushed around by a strong wind or they may even be sliding down a very slight incline that isn't obvious in the photos.

reply to post by mythatsabigprobe


This was basically the theory of the documentary I saw which I thought was pretty plausible right until the end when they said the rocks do the same thing in the middle of the summer when there is more or less no moisture which made me question the whole rest of the documentary..

Confusing

reply to post by meteoritics


Might happen in some cases. In my personal experiences, the dry lake where I have whitnessed the phenomom, the dry lake never freezes. Located in Southeastern AZ desert it will get cold enough to snow an inch and freeze some water but we have relative dry winters to begin with.

reply to post by staple


Hmmm…Now Im going to have to think about that. Very good point. WHY didn’t this occur to me? It seemed so plausible, but you have blown my theory to bits!