This is going to be a series of posts inspired on Wired’s latest issue. I always loved mystery places. From the Bermuda Triangle, to the Pyramids.
The first one on the list is Racetrack Playa. It is located in the northern part of the Panamint Mountains in Death Valley National Park in California.
The Racetrack Playa is home to the “sailing stones”. The stones slowly move across the surface of the playa, leaving a track as they go, without human or animal intervention. They have never been seen or filmed in motion. Racetrack stones only move once every two or three years and most tracks last for just three or four years. Stones with rough bottoms leave straight striated tracks while those with smooth bottoms wander. Stones sometimes turn over, exposing another edge to the ground and leaving a different-sized track in the stone’s wake.
But like everything there is a proper scientific explanation to it. The sailing stones are most likely moved by strong winter winds (up to 90 mph), once it has rained enough to fill the playa with just enough water to make the clay slippery. The prevailing winds across Racetrack Playa travel blow from southwest to northeast. Most of the rock trails are parallel to this direction, lending support to this hypothesis.
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