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Researching the moving rocks of Racetrack Playa, California, America - 11 Aug 2010
Mandatory Credit: Photo by NASA/GSFC/Maggie McAdam / Rex Features ( 1216681i )
Four LPSA interns test the clay at Bonnie Claire Playa, another location where the rocks move, to see how quickly water is absorbed.
The Mystery of the Moving Rocks
It's a puzzling sight that the world of science has never found a conclusive answer for - rocks that seemingly move across the plains of California.
Since the 1940s researchers have documented trails left from the movement of boulders on so-called playas, or dry lakes, in Death Valley.
Amazingly, rocks as big as 700 pounds have been subject to the unexplained phenomena that sees them seemingly glide over the parched landscape - even changing direction on their path.
Some rocks travel in pairs, leaving two tracks perfectly in synch along straight stretches and around curves. Others seem undecided about direction and travel back and forth. sometimes travelling the length of several football fields.
Most cases see the trails leading to resting rocks, but in others they have disappeared.
Now a team of seventeen undergraduate and graduate students from the Lunar and Planetary Sciences Academy (LPSA) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have begun an investigation.
They travelled to the Racetrack and nearby Bonnie Claire playas this summer to investigate how these rocks move across the nearly empty flats.
"When you see these amazing rocks and trails," says Mindy Krzykowski, an intern from the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, "you really get into coming up with your own ideas about what's going on."
For each rock and trail the students recorded GPS coordinates and took photographs. They also dug up small sensors called Hygrochrons buried three months earlier by one of the trip leaders. From these, the interns were able to capture the electronically stored temperature and humidity data.
They marked the trail boundaries by sli...
For more information visit http://www.rexfeatures.com/stacklink/ELWGZWSVD
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