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Sliding Rocks Bemuse Scientists

Posted by kdawson on from the no-footprints dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Scientists can't figure out why these rocks — weighing up to several hundred pounds each — slide across a dry lake bed. The leading theory proposes that wind moves the rocks after a rain when the lake bed consists of soft and very slippery mud.

3 of 433 comments (clear)

  1. Mark Newman Poster by stoolpigeon · · Score: 5, Informative

    Mark Newman has a very nice sliding rock poster with a good shot of rock and trail in a variety of sizes.

    --
    It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
    1. Re:Mark Newman Poster by An+ominous+Cow+art · · Score: 4, Informative

      I was there in August this year, and it was quite windy. It's very easy to imagine that if the ground had been muddy, the wind could slide the rocks around.

  2. Re:Amazing how no-one bothers to actually CHECK. by DigitalCrackPipe · · Score: 4, Informative

    In true /. form, you either failed to RTFA or to WTFV, as the video clearly does not show the rocks moving. It shows water and miscelaneous floating scum moving, and posits the same theories as in the article (just claiming them to have been proven).

    And as to the foolishly simple explanation, H.L. Mekcken is quoted to have said, "Every complex problem has a solution that is simple, direct, plausible, and wrong".