How old is racetrack playa

Could a wind, blowing across the surface of the ice, move the ice, along with the embedded rocks, across the surface of the playa? The moving rocks would cut furrows into the surface of the playa which, after the ice melts and the water recedes, would become the trails seen by visitors to the playa when the weather improves.

Sometimes multiple neighboring rocks have trails that seem to have simultaneously change directions. These highly congruent trails on multiple rocks strongly support the "wind moving rocks embedded in an ice sheet" theory. One of the first reports that provided strong evidence of the rocks being moved this way is a video by Brian Dunning. Rocks of many shapes leave trails across Racetrack Playa. Lots of sliding rocks and trails on Racetrack Playa.

Until , all of the best explanations involved wind as the energy source and an ice sheet that captures enough wind energy to drag a six-hundred-pound rock across the surface of the playa. The big break in solving the mystery occurred in November when a lake up to three inches deep covered the playa and then froze. Researchers then observed many ice-embedded rocks moving slowly across the playa on several dates in December and January This evidence of the rocks in motion has been shared in a video by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

By February the lake had dried up, and new trails left by the recently-moved rocks could be seen in the playa sediment surface. Some of the rocks had been equipped with a small GPS recorder, and their records indicate that some rocks had moved over seven hundred feet during at least four episodes of movement. This work demonstrated the movement of the rocks and attributed it to wind moving the rocks while they were embedded in a large ice sheet floating on a thin layer of water.

Finally the mystery was solved! Movement of a large rock across a barren surface is almost impossible to believe. What powerful force could be moving them? Researchers have investigated this question since the s, but no one has ever seen the process in action —until now. Because the stones can sit for a decade or more without moving, the researchers did not originally expect to see motion in person. Instead, they decided to monitor the rocks remotely by installing a high-resolution weather station capable of measuring gusts to 1 second intervals and fitting 15 rocks with custom-built, motion-activated GPS units.

The Park Service could not let them use native rocks, so they brought in similar rocks from an outside source. The experiment was set up in Winter with permission of the National Park Service. Then —in what Ralph Lorenz of the Applied Physics Laboratory at the Johns Hopkins University, one of the paper's authors, suspected would be "the most boring experiment ever" —they waited for something to happen.

But in December , Norris and co-author James Norris of Interwoof and Richard's cousin arrived in Death Valley to discover that the playa was covered with a shallow pond no more than seven centimeters three inches deep. Shortly after, the rocks began moving. Their observations show that moving the rocks requires a rare combination of events.

First, the playa fills with water, which must be deep enough to allow formation of floating ice during cold winter nights but shallow enough to expose the rocks. As nighttime temperatures plummet, the pond freezes to form sheets of "windowpane" ice, which must be thin enough to move freely but thick enough to maintain strength.

On sunny days, the ice begins to melt and break up into large floating panels, which light winds drive across the playa pool. The ice sheets shove rocks in front of them and the moving stones leave trails in the soft mud bed below the pool surface. These observations were surprising in light of previous models, which had proposed hurricane-force winds, dust devils, slick algal films, or thick sheets of ice as likely contributors to rock motion.

Instead, rocks moved under light winds of about meters per second 10 miles per hour and were driven by ice less than 5 millimeters 0. Individual rocks remained in motion for anywhere from a few seconds to 16 minutes.

In one event, the researchers observed that rocks three football fields apart began moving simultaneously and traveled over 60 meters feet before stopping. Rocks often moved multiple times before reaching their final resting place. The researchers also observed rock-less trails formed by grounding ice panels —features that the Park Service had previously suspected were the result of tourists stealing rocks.

Richard and Jim Norris, and co-author Jib Ray of Interwoof started studying the Racetrack's moving rocks to solve the "public mystery' and set up the "Slithering Stones Research Initiative" "Science for the fun of it" to engage a wide circle of friends in the effort. They needed the help to repeatedly visit the remote dry lake, quarry rocks for the GPS-instrumented stones, and design the custom-built instrumentation. If you plan on visiting more than 1 national park this year we suggest you go ahead and purchase the America the Beautiful Pass which can be found at the entrance gates to most national parks or online here.

Guide: I highly recommend this one. Map: I use this one. In years past people have driven a vehicle on this surface and despite massive repair efforts undertaken by the park service the damage will take many, many years to full recover. Sunscreen: For many of us visiting national parks in the summer means lots of sun. Want to learn more? Read about the seven principals of Leave No Trace here. Flat Tires: Have a plan in case you get a flat tire on the long and bumpy road out to the racetrack.

Sure, seeing the sailing stones is very cool but for us, it was not as exciting as we thought it would be. The footprints, tire tracks, and vandalism all take away from this experience. However, if the idea of this entire day sounds interesting, then this excursion will be worth it. This is one of those excursions where the journey is just as important as the destination. A visit to Racetrack Playa is not just about seeing some moving stones, but also about the bumpy, adventurous drive down Racetrack Valley Road and enjoying the isolation of this area.

If you are not excited about doing this drive, at least a little bit, is it going to be worth it for you to visit Racetrack Playa? Arrive early in the day. If you can be the first one here, it is an awesome experience. We arrived at Racetrack Playa at 10 am and were the first ones here, although it only took 15 more minutes for the next people to arrive.

Even so, for 15 minutes it was such a thrill to have this place to ourselves. Leave no trace. As a responsible visitor, leave no trace that you were here. And if it is wet, do not walk out onto the Racetrack Playa. It can take years for muddy footprints to disappear. We did this on December Expect to spend one to two hours at a minimum on Racetrack Playa.

The entire excursion can take up to 8 to 10 hours. Know how to change a flat tire. Flat tires are a common occurrence on this road. Bring extra food and water. We brought hours worth of food and water, just in case we got stuck out here.

Since we did this drive in December, we also brought blankets to keep us warm, just in case we had to spend the night here. Make sure you have a full tank of gas before you leave Furnace Creek or Stovepipe Wells.

Your car will be running for at least 6 hours today. If you have plans to continue on the roads past Racetrack Playa, consider bringing extra gas with you. We spent two nights at Stovepipe Wells Hotel. Stovepipe Wells is an oasis in the middle of Death Valley. There are hotel rooms, a campground, gas station, general store, saloon, and a restaurant.

It is very convenient to have everything you need in one spot. The rooms are nothing fancy but they are clean and comfortable. There are hiking trails nearby and just five minutes away are the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, a definite must-see while in Death Valley. Are you planning a visit to Racetrack Playa? Share your questions or comments below! Planning a trip to California? Read all of our articles in our California Destination Guide.

Thank you for the good write up. I am so saddened to read about the footprints, the tire tracks, the vandalism. I visited the site in , found it pristine, and wrote about it at the time, including this sentence:. It looks like you had a truly great time. I am planning a summer break for the family in August and expect to be driving through DV on 28th.

Staying over at Stovepipe and leaving on 29th for the second leg of the DV experience. A drive to the Racetrack and also the Lost Burro Mine, just 10 miles away, but 40 mins drive, each way. Sounds like a drive into London. Speaking to the rangers they say they never patrol these areas and it could be days even weeks to find us if we do break down! The roads do not look in the photos and some videos I have seen to be very daunting.

They have many roads and paths that look far worse and drive ordinary cars along with them daily.