Slashdot Mirror
Sliding Rocks Bemuse Scientists
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.
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?
I saw this on TV once! It was this documentary about these very things! They're called Hortas and their intelligent. Apparently they can be taught to mine.
Anyone who has seen an M Night Shamylan movie or been involved in a Usenet discussion about UFO's can readily see that there is one glaringly obvious answer...
IT'S ALIENS GUYS!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!
I got a catholic block.
...nature's version of desert curling?
... literally:
Quote: "Research of the Racetrack has continued. In the April 1997 GPS World, Paula Messina, Phil Stoffer and Keith C. Clarke reported a GPS study they conducted of the Racetrack. In ten days of intense field work they mapped every featured of the playa using differential GPS to produce, "the first-ever, complete, georeferenced, submeter-resolution map of the wandering rocks." (Messina, 1997, p. 42)"
http://sophia.smith.edu/~lfletche/deathvalley.html
But it seems they have no real conclusion too.
What about 'The Force"?
CC.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
This begs the question, why hasn't someone setup a webcam to record these rock movements and solve this thing once and for all? I mean, if they can setup cameras in the arctic circle, death valley shouldn't be that hard to handle.
Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
These stones don't want to gather any moss.
'mmmmmmmmm.... forbidden donut'
In all those pictures, I don't see any buildup of dust in front of the rocks, though there is plenty on the sides of the paths. Usually, when I push something through the dirt/mud/snow/whatever, I end up with a good buildup in front, too. I wonder where that has gone.
Edward Burr
Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a swimming pool.
... that the rocks slide because the lateral forces exerted on the rocks exceed the static and dynamic frictional force cause by the gravity induced weight of the rock acting across the mud-rock interface. I guess I could be wrong and there are worm-holes involved.
----- There are two kinds of people in this world, my friend; those with loaded guns, and those who dig.
but he does hold magnets under the surface of the table, moving objects on top as if by magic, just to bemuse and entertain us
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
is that posting this article in Slashdot is sure to produce a definitive solution to the mystery...
or rather, 100 of them.
Actually, it's caused by the continential tilt. It causes all the loose cannons and nuts and bolts to roll towards California.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Clearly the Flying Spaghetti Monster is moving them with his Noodly Appendage.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 Whoops, silly middle mouse button...
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
Obviously, the rocks were casually lurking on Slashdot, when they read "Move along, nothing to see here..."
{rimshot}
because teutonic plate theory was just too crazy to accept...
... although it replaced the even more silly Gaulish plate theory, quickly discarded by history.
"All these years believing you're the signified monkey, only to find out you're just a big hunk of nobody cares."
Ironic rock is worse than rai-e-ain on your wedding day, or a free-ee ride, when you already paid.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
I'd be curious if the under sides of the sliding sliding stones were concave? Why I mention it is I still remember a certain chinese restaurant's tea cups had a habit of sliding across the table. The table tops were resin coated and the concave cups tended to capture moisture under them so when the tea heated the moisture under the cup the expansion provided enough lift to break the friction and allow them to slide. They would move randomly in different directions then stop for a few minutes then slide again. Since the area is hot a unique combination of heated rocks with slippery mud and wind could in combination cause the effect. I remember that some rocks slid and others didn't as well as the direction changes.
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".
Rick Rolled while Reading about Rolling Rock Research, by a link Represented as Relevant.
I Require you Rectify this Rankling Repugnance.
Regards,
Ryan
Just -1, Troll talking to another.
The cracked effect is what you get when muds dries out, the effect is NOT visible in the trails. How can this be IF the rocks moved when the mud was still there? There is a cracked effect in the trail but it is crushed, the effect you would expect if the rocks had been moved AFTER the ripple effect had already started to form, AFTER the mud started to dry or even when it was already dry.
But if the rocks moved on ice then AFTER the ice melted there would be mud, that if dried would show the same pattern all around the newly positioned rock with just the ridges of the trail left. NOT flattened dried mud.
As for purely the wind moving them, how fast do the winds get there anyway? Wind can be extremely powerfull even in areas with lots of obstructions, in open areas, well if it can pick up/move trucks, why not rocks? Far heavier things are lifted up by air alone, how do you think aircraft work?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Did you watch the video carefully? They offer a very authoritative sounding explanation of the water / ice theory presented as one option in the article, but don't actually capture rocks in motion on film. There's water moving, and some sort of foam on top of the water, but that's about it. As the original article says, there's lots of evidence in favor of this theory, but also evidence against it being that simple -- like experiments involving undisturbed stakes and such. As far as I can tell, that seems to be a piece of the explanation, but not the whole explanation.
I have another theory for this.
Perhaps, when the ground is wet, there's a mud layer slightly beneath the surface that becomes fluid. Then, tidal foces make the surface to move up and down creating waves. The waves migh be very low amplitude (a few cm could be enough) and low speed/frequency, but enough to make the rocks slowly slide on the dry (or slightly moist) surface.
Does it sound plausible?