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Moving Rocks of Death Valley's Racetrack Playa

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Captured on video for the first time: the mysterious forces that move rocks across the surface of Racetrack Playa in California's Death Valley. As featured on Japanese television.Nobody has ever seen these rocks move, but they leave trails across the dried mud surface often hundreds of yards long. But on this cold winter morning, when the snowmelt covered the playa, we finally saw what nobody before had ever captured on film.

Channel: Howto & Style
Uploaded: March 13, 2006 at 3:51 pm
Author: volleybrian

Length: 01:36
Rating: 4.56
Views: 366953

Tags: death  playa  racetrack  rocks  valley  

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Video Comments

OldSmellyCrotch (August 14, 2008 at 9:16 pm)
Do these rocks have magnetic qualities? If so there maybe something under the ground that is moving them, like having a magnet under a table and moving a coin across the surface!?
wasurera (August 10, 2008 at 4:27 am)
I agree with weshard - it hasn't been explained yet, but eventually there will be a discovery that really explains it instead of ignoring the real oddities of it. It's hard to imagine what could move things so strangely (if you don't think it's strange, do more research on the rock weights and directional movements) but then it was hard to imagine black holes and non-solar radio waves just a few decades ago. I agree about recording it, but the rocks only move every few years, making that hard.
jayandlisa07 (August 8, 2008 at 3:08 pm)
Some rocks as large as 700lbs have moved which would a) break a thin sheet of ice and b) would require a wind forces over 500mph. We dont have wind like that. If its so simple to explain, why doesnt National Geographic set up cameras to record it? Seems like the most simplist way to get people to see that its expainable and stop making up paranormal and alien reasons.
martin04409 (July 31, 2008 at 12:34 pm)
what he's saying is:at night the temperature drops, and the water freezes the ground, and gale-force winds push the rocks on the icy surface, which makes trails in the dirt.whoever doesnt understand that- after WATCHING and LISTENING to this video.. is a moron.
KingTharg (July 31, 2008 at 3:07 am)
that's why we must wear tinfoil hats at all times, so the government cant do it to us as well
DARGONTeraAlpha (July 20, 2008 at 6:26 pm)
How does he explain the fact that the rocks would have to be on the surface after the ice was formed? not to mention that if the ice forms over night.. and the rocks are in place at that time.. wouldn't the rocks be frozen to the mud?
JrsSd619 (July 18, 2008 at 6:41 pm)
OMG.We learn this in High school!GO TO SCHOOL!!!
weshard1 (July 16, 2008 at 4:18 pm)
This seems the most prosaic, and therefore likely, explanation for this phenomena.For some reason people will not accept this, prefering to attribute it to something supernatural. There is nothing in nature that is of supernatural origin. All things can be explained. Just because they are not yet explained, does not mean they never will be. That is merely an argumentum ad ignorentium.People tend to prefer to leave a mystery as a mystery.
weshard1 (July 16, 2008 at 4:17 pm)
This seems the most prosaic, and therefore likely, explanation for this phenomena.For some reason people will not accept this, prefering to attribute it to something supernatural. There is nothing in nature that is of supernatural origin. All things can be explained. Just because they are not yet explained, does not mean they never will be. That is merely an argumentum ad ignorentium.People tend to prefer to leave a mystery as a mystery.
pufthemajicdragon (July 10, 2008 at 10:27 am)
As if the Discovery Channel automatically knows all...Heat differential is one hypothosis. Ice, mud, and wind is another (or 3 if you count them seperately). Nobody knows for sure, yet, what makes the rocks move. Not even the Discovery Channel.I am put off that the video is advertised as footage of the rocks moving when it only shows a bunch of windblown water. I don't like semantics games.


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