Natural History Wanderings

EarthSky reported

How could rocks – driven by some unseen force – slide across the ground, leaving behind a trail? That’s what happens at Racetrack Playa, a dry lake bed at Death Valley National Park in California. The definitive solution to this long-standing mystery finally came in 2014, from two cousins. Their work showed that the rocks are nudged into motion by melting panels of thin floating ice, driven by light winds, in winter.

Read on earthsky.org/earth/death-valley-sliding-slithering-sailing-stone-mystery-solved/