What moves the “traveling stones” of the Mojave Desert? For decades, this question intrigued scientists and visitors to this mythical environment in the American Southeast. More specifically, from a salt mine called Racetrack Playain Californian e death Valley.
The phenomenon, also existing in other deserts of the world, consists of the movement of stones along the surface of the salt flat without human contact, leaving behind the trace of its journey.
Stones can move at six meters per minuteLaurence G. Charlot
It was first observed at the beginning of the 20th century, after which it began to be studied.
There are several peculiarities of the phenomenon: firstly, the stones that move do so in parallel trajectories and change direction in a coordinated manner.
Furthermore, they are not in continuous movement, but rather alternate phases of paralysis that can last for years with others in which they are ‘active’. When they do, they can achieve speeds of up to six meters per minute.
Stones usually move in parallel pathsCNET
The first scientific hypotheses to explain the mystery first pointed to wind swirlsand, later, to mats formed by algae that, with the wind, would allow the stones to slide.
Both were discarded: in the first case, it was found that only small rocks could move like this; In the second, the fact that the ground is frozen in winter, together with the insufficient force of the wind, ruled out the supposed existence of a film of algae.
Along with these, another theory also pointed to the mud that forms in the ground after a rainy episode, which would allow the stones to slide.
A “traveling stone” in the Mojave DesertJon Sullivan
All of this led to a study in 2014 in which, through tracking with GPS and cameras, a group of scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, in La Jolla (California), confirmed the cause of the movement: the ice that forms at night does have an influence, although not on its own. Rather, it creates the conditions so that, in the morning, melting in the heat of the sun, the stones move towards the direction in which the wind flows.
However, the phenomenon It doesn’t happen every year.but it depends on the climatic conditions of each season.
