The Racetrack — The Moving Rocks Finally Caught in the Act
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Transcript
For decades, rocks on Racetrack Playa seemed to move without witnesses, leaving long tracks across the mud. The phenomenon attracted explanations involving powerful winds, magnetic forces and other exotic ideas. In 2013 researchers finally observed the mechanism directly. After rare rain created a shallow pond, cold nights formed thin floating ice. As the ice broke into panels, light winds pushed the sheets against rocks and moved them slowly across the soft playa surface. The solution is less supernatural and more elegant than the mystery. Several ordinary conditions—water, freezing temperatures, thin ice and wind—have to coincide in an extraordinary place.