[meteorite-list] Why Are Death Valley's Rocks Moving Themselves? -- not off-topic at all!

From: Jim Wooddell <jimwooddell_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2011 17:07:54 -0700
Message-ID: <AANLkTinvesVYO7ZNrC25D3cZ3erC4DVfzVPB8+T1dyUg_at_mail.gmail.com>

Hi Rob and all!

I was out at Danby this last weekend. Some rocks on the dry lake had
been on the move!
There were a couple of rocks I noticed with marks about 1 foot long.
There were also broken bush limbs with same marks. This area was
under water and very muddy for the last month or so. Although it did
get below freezing a few times, I am thinking the water had a big
part in the movement, along with the wind. That mud gets slicker than
snot when wet (I learned that several times the hard way over the
years). The tracks I noticed showed the rocks moving North or little
North of the Old Woman range!!

Cheers!

Jim Wooddell




On Sat, Feb 19, 2011 at 1:06 PM, Rob Matson <mojave_meteorites at cox.net> wrote:
> Hi Michael,
>
> IMHO, it's definitely ice-rafting. It happens on any desert playa that
> is hard enough, receives sufficient winter rains, and gets cold enough
> to freeze at night. In California, I've seen the rock furrows at Silver
> Dry Lake, Superior Dry Lake, Cuddeback Dry Lake and (most recently)
> Coyote Dry Lake. I've also seen them on some Nevada playas as well
> as the Alvord Desert in Oregon, and they occur in Arizona, as well.
Received on Sat 19 Feb 2011 07:07:54 PM PST