There are plenty of mysterious places on the planet. Scientists do not have time to find logical explanations for their phenomena. So are the moving stones from Death Valley in California - the facts seem to be obvious, but there is no documented evidence.
Phenomenon
Mysterious stones are located at the bottom of the dried-up Lake Racetrack Playa, which is surrounded by mountain ranges. Rare showers allow it to partially fill with water. It flows down the slopes, but does not linger for a long time. The sun and harsh winds quickly dry up the moisture. Clay soil is cracking.
Stones of different sizes are randomly scattered along the bottom. Periodically, they change location, spontaneously moving along the soil and leaving characteristic furrows in it that cannot be confused with anything else. The direction of movement of stones is different. That is, they move absolutely unpredictably. Some blocks can move parallel for some time, then abruptly change the vector to the side, back, or even roll over. How everything happens, why they start moving and why they stop, is not known for certain.
Many people wonder why the stones move in Death Valley. Some come to see them to unravel the mystery, suspecting a trick, others are sure of the mystical nature of these phenomena. There are also those who try to ride on blocks. There are known cases of missing stones - there is a furrow on the surface of the bottom of the lake, but the cobblestone itself is gone.
Location
The Valley of Moving Stones is located in California. This place is considered one of the driest on the planet. Among other things, the valley has the deepest land depression in the Western Hemisphere (86 meters below sea level).
The maximum temperature (57 ºC) was recorded in 1913. Nowadays, in the summer in the valley it is over 40 ºC, in winter - on average, a little above zero. The valley is surrounded by mountains. Scientists suggest that they are still rising from the bowels of the earth, while the plateau descends. The mountains do not allow air currents with life-giving moisture to pass through. But during the rainy season, there are floods, and drying lakes form in the lowlands.
Ore was once mined in the valley. Settlers washed gold, searched for silver, built enterprises for processing borax. But climatic conditions did not allow to launch serious production. People were leaving, the towns around the mines were deserted.
History: Valley of the Moving Stones (California)
It is believed that a thousand years ago this territory and the entire Mojave Desert were inhabited by Indian tribes of Timbisha. There are suggestions that their descendants still live in the vicinity of the valley. Then the climate in the region was not sosevere, and the Indians could survive by hunting and gathering. The tribes left, they were replaced by others, but the stones remained.
The first settlers from Europe appeared in California with the start of the gold rush. There is evidence that in 1849, prospectors decided to drive through the territory of the present valley in order to shorten their path to the nearest gold mines. For several weeks they wandered around the plateau, looking for a way out. They had to endure serious trials, because they did not know about the harsh climate of the territory. When they crossed the mountains of Wingate Pass, the area they crossed was called Death Valley. Along the way, the prospectors had to find water by digging up drying streams to survive and feed on their pack animals.
Death Valley
Stones move there not everywhere and not all the time. But that doesn't stop travelers. Despite the harsh climate, the area in 1933 received the status of a monument of national importance. Once upon a time people came there because of the healing springs. Later, after the towns of prospectors were deserted, tourists went to look at the abandoned mines, houses, streets, quarters.
Now the valley is a large-scale tourist complex. The area of the park is over 13,000 square kilometers. People come there to admire the amazing scenery. In addition to the valley with moving stones and amazing mountains, those who wish can see the crater of the Ubehebe volcano, visit the lowest point of the Western Hemisphere - the s alt lake Bedwater, admire the views from the Zabriyski Point observation deck, visit the Artist's Palette and the famous Scotty's castle.
Tourism
Death Valley Park (America, California) is considered the largest in the region. The service and infrastructure there are organized at a high level. For those who want to enjoy amazing landscapes, there is an opportunity to stay in one of the hotels or choose a campsite with guest houses. Routes, trails and paths are laid out and thought out for the convenience of tourists in such a way as to maximize the beauty of the surrounding places.
The park consists of two valleys surrounded by mountain systems. Significant are Mount Telescope and Dantez View. The most visited part of the valley is Furnace Creek. To make the path easier, you can sit on a horse. This will allow you not to be distracted by the difficulties of the transition and focus on the landscape: snowy peaks, rocks, canyons, s alty plateaus, lakes.
For those who like to tickle their nerves, there is a route to the abandoned Riolight - the "ghost town", abandoned by prospectors almost a hundred years ago. The crater of the volcano Ubehebe, almost a kilometer wide and 200 meters deep, which went out seven thousand years ago, also attracts attention, as do the “creeping” stones at the bottom of Lake Racetrack Playa.
Facts
Are there moving rocks anywhere else on the planet? Death Valley (USA) is unique in its kind. However, information about such movements came at different times and from other places on the planet. The history of the Blue-stone and its Far Eastern counterpart is known. Near Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan and in the foothills of Alatau - their crawling cobblestones. In Tibet, the Buddha Stone, weighing more than a ton, has been moving up for one and a half thousand years.down the spiral.
What happens at the bottom of Lake Racetrack Playa? This flat area is located at an altitude of more than one kilometer above sea level. The bottom of the lake with a length of 4.5 km and a width of 2.2 km has a slope of only 1-2 cm per kilometer. Cobblestones are scattered randomly in this area. The vast majority of them rolled down from the dolomite hills. All stones of various sizes and weights (up to several hundred kilograms).
It has been established that these blocks move along the surface. The movement itself was not recorded on video. However, there is no doubt that they “travel” without human help. It is impossible to determine or predict the beginning of the movement. Cobblestones "come to life" every few years. If you're lucky, you can observe the renewal of positions every year. It was not possible to reliably determine what the movements are associated with, but it was noted that their activity is mainly manifested in winter.
Traces
Moving stones leave furrows on the surface of the bottom of the lake. In most cases, they remain visible for several years. The depth of the trace reaches 2.5 cm with a width of massive specimens up to 30 cm.
The facts show that the mass and size of the "creeping" fragments of dolomite rock are not significant. Both five-hundred-gram specimens and blocks weighing over three hundred kilograms were moving.
During active research, a six-centimeter (in diameter) pebble traveled the maximum distance in one period of activity. He "creeped" more than 200 meters. Mosta massive specimen that was active during the same period weighed 36 kg.
The marks left by ribbed stones are more even. If the plane of the fragment is relatively smooth, then the furrow most often “wags” from side to side. Some traces give reason to believe that in the process of moving the stones turned over on their side.
Myths and hypotheses
The desert, where the stones move, except for this geological phenomenon, has no other obvious deviations from the norm. True, in the mountains surrounding the valley, there was once a volcanic eruption that left a crater more than a kilometer wide. But this happened several thousand years ago.
How to explain the phenomenon of self-moving stones? There are supporters of the mystical theory. Some people who have visited Death Valley have reported some discomfort, but it is difficult to pinpoint the exact cause. Whether this is due to geomagnetic fields is unknown.
There is another theory that every stone carries a certain essence that defies scientific explanation. A group of scientists looking beyond this phenomenon suggest that the moving rocks are manifestations of another, older silicon life form.
Death Valley and myths about aliens and tricks of evil spirits did not pass by. Since the beginning of research into the phenomenon, hypotheses of seismic activity in the region and the impact of complex geomagnetic fields have been put forward.
In general, there is room for imagination. Anyone can choose a suitable theory as a basis and try to prove it.or refute after a visit to the valley. The mystery that is still present attracts not only tourist travelers, but also scientists to these places. It is believed that the area where such phenomena appear is part of the anomalous zones, and there are always enough supporters to tickle your nerves.
Official version
Until recently it was believed that moving stones are the result of a unique combination and interaction of clay soil, water, wind and ice. Which of the elements plays a decisive role, and which an auxiliary one, could not be established.
Presumably in winter, when the greatest physical activity is manifested, the soil of the lake bottom is in a wet state due to the presence of precipitation during this period. Wet clay soil has a low coefficient of friction. Rime on the surface of the stones and temperature changes also affect the sliding.
Gusts of wind, which sometimes reaches high speeds and has tornado-like eddies, can trigger the start of movement. The unevenness, chaotic directions of the vectors, as well as the unpredictability of the beginning of activity may be the result of a unique coincidence of wind strength, humidity and temperature regimes.
Research
The study of the geological phenomenon was seriously taken up in the middle of the last century. Expeditions went to the valley, set up tent camps, conducted long-term observations, experiments and experiments, but it was not possible to fix the movement of stones.
Arosea series of questions: "Why don't the stones pile up, concentrate closer to one of the shores of a dried-up lake? Why do they rarely move and just when there is not a single witness with a camera nearby?" Nevertheless, there were no serious prerequisites for the falsification of traces of the movement.
Thomas Clement in the winter of 1952 was a witness to severe bad weather. He watched the stones for a long time, but one night he was forced to take shelter from the weather in a tent. The next morning, he discovered fresh furrows and suggested that the reason was wind, water and soil soaked from streams.
Since 1972, a unique phenomenon has been studied by Robert Sharp and Dwight Carey. They chose 30 stones to observe, weighed and measured the pieces, gave them names, and took readings of their location for seven years. In 1995, the group of Professor John Reid de alt with the same problem.
Moving stones at the end of the last century even became the subject of a successfully defended dissertation. Geologist Pola Messina explored the area from 1993 to 1998 and compared the location of 160 stones using GPS sensors. She also determined the composition of rock fragments and found colonies of bacteria in a layer of clay at the bottom of a drying lake.
Reality
NASA specialists were also involved in the study of the phenomenon. In 2010, under their guidance, a group of students studied the location of a geological phenomenon. They suggested the presence of a thin layer of ice that forms on the surface of the water during periods of activity. The same theory back in 1955proposed George Stanley, assuring that the wind itself is not able to move massive fragments of rock, but the ice crust around a stone frozen in water can increase the likelihood of movement.
How to explain this? In 2014, a theory was proposed that proves the possibility of moving stones along the bottom of the lake. The conditions under which this phenomenon is possible have also been described.
According to eyewitnesses, during a flood, a layer of water of about 7 cm is possible at the bottom of the lake. On frosty nights, a layer of ice forms on its surface. The sun and thaw destroy the layer. The formed ice floes are driven by the wind. If stones are reliably frozen in them, then a gust of wind can give such a formation the necessary acceleration. According to calculations, an ice crust of about 800 square meters can provide the necessary windage. After the water drains, a characteristic mark will remain at the bottom.
