Mysterious Roving Rocks of Racetrack Playa

    The rocks are famous because they move, leaving tell-tale trails in the clay, like this one. This happens at several playa in California and Nevada. There's no record of anybody seeing one of the rocks move, and scientists aren't quite sure how it happens. But they know that it's not the work of animals, gravity, or earthquakes.

    Photo credit: NASA/GSFC/Cynthia Cheung

    To read a feature story on the Racetrack Playa go to: www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/roving-rocks.html

    NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is home to the nation's largest organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe.

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    Comments and faves

    1. ★

      Rocha Gustavo, Three Sevens, Carlos Cancela Pinto, tskorigami, and 117 other people added this photo to their favorites.

    2. hellgah! (34 months ago | reply)

      wind?

    3. IRIS ET CHIMERE (34 months ago | reply)

      fake?

    4. Σταύρος (34 months ago | reply)

      What ??

    5. Σταύρος (34 months ago | reply)

      answer = photoshop

    6. Mateja Boltiš (34 months ago | reply)

      it's not fake and it's not photoshop!

    7. garethjones206 (34 months ago | reply)

      Aliens!!1!111 omg

      --
      Seen in my contacts' photos. (?)

    8. Σταύρος (34 months ago | reply)

      Ants !

    9. Σταύρος (34 months ago | reply)

      Magnetic field !

    10. Σταύρος (34 months ago | reply)

      Teicaa...
      I like your glasses...;)

    11. ross bonadonna (34 months ago | reply)

      well various possibilities come to mind of some kind of vibrational energy generated, either from above (heating, look at that environment) or below some kind of sub earthquake vibration, the broken surface seems particularly able to transfer this kind of force... or maybe... some kind of electro-magnetic fields caused by the same basic forces and structure....

    12. ross bonadonna (34 months ago | reply)

      maybe a mineral interaction, like a bi-metallic type thing...

    13. diecutstickers.com (34 months ago | reply)

      Interesting, I have heard of this before.........

    14. fsmphoto (34 months ago | reply)

      OK OK I admit it is a hoax. I fess up! I've been doing this for years - watching the weather patterns and making special trips to the location to push the rocks around at night. I just step in the tracks created by the rocks so my footsteps disappear. (wink wink)

    15. Michael T Gardner (34 months ago | reply)

      I googled it and from what I read is that the valley floods and ice forms in large sheets during the winter and up to 90mph wind can shove those giant sheets into the rocks causing them to move. Though no one has ever actually seen that happen, it's entirely speculative for the time being.

    16. Pontus_GBG (34 months ago | reply)

      Interesting!!

    17. Surrounded By Light (34 months ago | reply)

      duh, it's the desert dwelling rock gnomes..... mystery aside, this is a fabulous photo

    18. msamaclean ©...be back soon!...;-) (34 months ago | reply)

      I think one possibility is that the soil, (clay, being somewhat a slippery viscosity ), below the rock becomes ever so slightly moistened by a accumulation of minute water molecules, (condensation), from the atmosphere during the night time hours, causing the heavy rock to 'slide' an extremely small distance at one time. Over a period of time, the rock manages to 'travel', leaving its telltale path behind, of which we usually see during the dry, hot daytime.
      That's my story, & I'm sticking to it!...LOL

    19. PH56 (34 months ago | reply)

      I know this may seem really far fetched to a lot of people, but has anyone considered that these remarkable, surreal events might be caused by people moving rocks????

    20. PH56 (34 months ago | reply)

      By the way. You won't get footprints on hard baked soil. I know... I've walked on it!

    21. winston.1 { very busy.} (34 months ago | reply)

      Has anyone time lapsed film them???....l know what does it.....but l'm not telling.

    22. WorldofArun (34 months ago | reply)

      fascinating shot and story...hard to believe...

    23. Siuloon (34 months ago | reply)

      Wow.... Fantastic shot. Have a nice day.


      commented with FlickrComment

    24. Jérémie T (34 months ago | reply)

      just water ...

    25. Caity, c.s.k. [deleted] (34 months ago | reply)

      Very interesting!

    26. saki_axat (34 months ago | reply)

      Fabulous picture!

      View my most interesting on Flickriver

    27. Kuwait Zaizafoon is busy the next few months [deleted] (34 months ago | reply)

      Yes I've seen those rocks on a documentary years back ...very interesting indeed !
      its strange that after all these years.. a hundred or more since this phenomenon was brought to the attention of naturalists no one has ever seen them moving ???

      one theory i've read said that rocks get moved by the strong winds in the area when the ground is wet because of the rain !!... like a glass of water sitting on a wet table top..
      ...but still...a 300 kg rock moving >.< i just can't believe that !! its a bit hard !!!!

      just wondering ! why not to place some video cameras and film closely what is really happening there ?!

    28. rafallano (34 months ago | reply)

      Impressive shot, very well done

      I love

      Congratulations for the EXPLORE!!!

      Well done!!!

    29. A.Alwosaibie (34 months ago | reply)

      very beautiful work !

    30. Rui Almeida. (34 months ago | reply)

      congratulations for the explore
      --
      Seen in the interestingness archives. ( ?² )

    31. @PAkDocK / www.pakdock.com (34 months ago | reply)

      I really like the light, the idea, the fine composition....congratulations

    32. Σταύρος (34 months ago | reply)

      come on tell us !
      I still think its photoshoped,don't tell me people that work @ NASA dont play jokes...:)

    33. Σταύρος (34 months ago | reply)

      Look at this one it made a left at albuquerque, lol ! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Death_8_bg_082303. jpg

    34. Angiezpics (34 months ago | reply)

      WOW that is so interesting and the image is just fabulous.

    35. Soleil is me. (34 months ago | reply)

      Greeting from Bangkok, your image so wondeful artwork:)
      www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqqOXYag_4s&featu re=related
      SPLENDID PHOTO...YOUR PHOTO IS
      INVITED TO MY SPECIAL GALLERY The door of wisdom are never shut but seldom opened.Kornrawiee's Gallery... Invite ONLY
      Have a nice day & be happy:)

    36. diecutstickers.com (34 months ago | reply)

      It's actually a " Rock Sloth" a rock like creature that travels at very slow speeds, almost impossible to see with the human eye. They live off of condensation, and mold that grows on the desert floor. Discovered May 16, 1958 by Edward Van Hoight.

    37. Coco Mault (34 months ago | reply)

      Ebb and flo action of the drying Earth? Looks hot out there, but perhaps the tiny bit of shade the rock supplies is enough to slightly cause the sand under it to cool and contract. It warms up, the sand expands slightly, pushing the rock along, and the process starts again.

      Otherwise, my bet is that the rock has feet.

    38. PAL1970 (34 months ago | reply)

      Gorgeous image, I really like this one, a fine, fine work.

    39. Meinrad Périsset (34 months ago | reply)

      I propose to fix a video caméra on the stone or around like that we will discover what happen.

    40. Shamrockah (34 months ago | reply)

      Moved by the power of awesomeness.

    41. Caetanoven (34 months ago | reply)

      I imagine it was the work of the water .. and then she was gone by the sun action!

    42. C.D.P. (33 months ago | reply)

      See Sailing Stones [wikipedia] too.

    43. ace586 (28 months ago | reply)

      water. The landscape experiences severe floods once or twice a year. The surface absorbs very little, so it runs off and moves the rocks.

    44. *NEWMAN* (13 months ago | reply)

      Saw this many many years ago in a movie from Disney, don know the title in english, in spanish... "El Desierto viviente".
      Its real, and until now, no one discovered how this happens.

    45. *NEWMAN* (13 months ago | reply)


      look for the movie, the phonomena exist, its real, since many years ago, when no any computers available for the common people.

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