Sliding Rocks Bemuse Scientists

An anonymous reader writes "Scientists can't figure out why these rocks — weighing up to several hundred pounds each — slide across a dry lake bed. The leading theory proposes that wind moves the rocks after a rain when the lake bed consists of soft and very slippery mud.

Mark Newman Poster

[stoolpigeon]

Mark Newman [art.com] has a very nice sliding rock poster [amazon.com] with a good shot of rock and trail in a variety of sizes.

Re:Mark Newman Poster

[An ominous Cow art]

I was there in August this year, and it was quite windy. It's very easy to imagine that if the ground had been muddy, the wind could slide the rocks around.

Re:

[Just Some Guy]

It's very easy to imagine that if the ground had been muddy, the wind could slide the rocks around.

There are few sights as graceful as the majestic stoneships with their rocky sails gliding across the bounding main.

OK, I can possibly imagine storm winds so ferocious that they can drag rocks across a rough surface. I just can't imagine said surface being neatly lined and clean-edged afterward. If the mud were soft enough for the rocks to move across it easily, wouldn't it be prone to the soil equivalent of whitecaps with little ripples across it?

Re:

[An ominous Cow art]

Why, yes. Yes, I was.

But no, really, I was at the Racetrack playa in Death Valley National Park. I'd post pictures, but the ones in TFA cover it pretty well. Although I do have a nice close-up of the ground texture.

Re:Mark Newman Poster

[stoolpigeon]

In the desert the ground is really, really hard. It is completely plausible that a thin layer on the top could be slimy mud, while hard clay lies beneath.
 
I don't think you appreciate how remote this site is and what an effort it would be to pull off something like that. I really don't think it is someone messing around or that the wind theory is as unlikely as you think.

Re:

[ChameleonDave]

Indeed.

When my heavy beer glass gets a tiny bit of water between it and the hard table, it starts sliding around all by itself, with no wind at all. I can imagine that these stones slide similarly.

Re:Mark Newman Poster

[Basehart]

It's not just beer. I was bathing the other day and my pint sized glass of heavily iced water all of a sudden moved across the smooth plastic surface of the toilet seat lid and fell to the floor.

The toilet seat lid was covered in a fine layer of condensation from the bath water at the time.

I'm betting if the stones are cooled way down to almost freezing by the wind, or maybe frozen overnight and still cold when the rains hit, and the top surface of the mud turns into a slurry of fine particles, the stone will move around all on its own just like my cold glass of water on a fine layer of condensation.

Either that or space aliens.

Another theory

[Herby Sagues]

I have another theory for this.
Perhaps, when the ground is wet, there's a mud layer slightly beneath the surface that becomes fluid. Then, tidal foces make the surface to move up and down creating waves. The waves migh be very low amplitude (a few cm could be enough) and low speed/frequency, but enough to make the rocks slowly slide on the dry (or slightly moist) surface.
Does it sound plausible?

Re:

[Linux_Bastard]

What is happening there is that the cohesive water is acting as a flexible seal around the bottom of your glass, and it is resting on a cushion of trapped air.

When the glass is put down, if the water seal forms before the glass has fully contacted the surface, the air pressure will lift the glass as it evens out the pressure on the air cushion. This will cause it to be riding on an air bearing, and slide very easily.

Usually it will only go until the water seal is broken, releasing the air pressure that for

Re:

[ConceptJunkie]

It's not the wind. It is the earth rotating under the rocks. Not sure of the latitude of the location but the earth is rotating at something around 1000 miles per hour at the equator.

Well, you know of course that why the famous experiment with marbles on a smooth surface works. It's well known that any object on a relatively frictionless surface will slowly drift to the West because of the Earth's rotation. This is why that old design for "air hockey" was unfeasible. That's why marbles on balanced glass

Re:Mark Newman Poster

[vought]

Just seems to me that instead of crazy rocks sliding round on their own, some damn kids were up there fucking round with rocks.

Considering how difficult it is to get out to the Racetrack, I doubt this. Otherwise, I would think someone might camp out there during a storm and find out if they really skate around on their own.

Problem is that storms come up rarely but suddenly there (usually) and it takes almost two hours to get to the Racetrack from the nearest paved road - three hours from the Death Valley visitor's center - and if you get out there before a storm, there's no guarantee that even a very capable 4x4 will get you back afterwards.

Re:

[Roger W Moore]

Problem is that storms come up rarely but suddenly there (usually) and it takes almost two hours to get to the Racetrack from the nearest paved road - three hours from the Death Valley visitor's center - and if you get out there before a storm, there's no guarantee that even a very capable 4x4 will get you back afterwards.

Isn't this what remote camera's were invented for? I doubt this location is so remote that there isn't some way to link it up or at least to store the data and then periodically retriev

Re:Mark Newman Poster

[vought]

It sounds like fun, and it would only take a few years to get results. Compared to raising children the cost is low and the results are fast.

I agree. You do it.

Re:

[BigDogCH]

Yeah, but you won't know where the rock is when you return! It will have moved!

Re:

[eonlabs]

"there's no guarantee that even a very capable 4x4 will get you back afterwards"

So ride the rocks!

Re:Mark Newman Poster

[radish]

Yeah, I mean heaven forbid tourists actually come and spend money at their tourist-related businesses. I can imagine they're so glad when all that money goes back where it came from! Then their hotels can be nice and empty like they should be.

Re:

[MillionthMonkey]

I love places that try to require a tip on the bill. Those places, shoudl I happen to wind up at one unknowingly, will never get a cent for a tip. I'll figure out the actual check total and pay exactly that. The can go scratch on the tip for being retarded about it.

In Death Valley? They'll remember your face and tomorrow you'll end up driving an extra 50 miles for lunch.

Re:

[clam666]

In soviet desert, rocks move you?

It's a Horta!

[loftwyr]

I saw this on TV once! It was this documentary about these very things! They're called Hortas and their intelligent. Apparently they can be taught to mine.

Re:

[iggymanz]

you also don't want a female Horta to sit on your face if you wear glasses, that hydrofluoric acid they secrete when they're horny eats right through spectacles.

Re:It's a Horta!

[xSauronx]

Sit on my face, and tell me tha--- Oh god my eyes... THE BURNING! it burns so bad!

Re:It's a Horta!

[jfdawes]

.... the goggles ... they do nothing ....

Re:

[jamstar7]

So many great setups, so few modpoints.

Re:

[blueturffan]

No Kill I

Re:It's a Horta!

[sokoban]

Yes, and though the flow of water surrounding these things can be directed, these Horta do not readily absorb moisture.

Thus, you can lead a Horta water, but you can't make it drink.

Re:

[dfn_deux]

The Horta culture is really complex like that ;)

Re:

[camperdave]

Plant a camera out there for a year, take a snapshot every minute (or use motion detection), collect weather data (humidity, dew point, temperature, evaportion rates, wind speed/dir) and corrolate that to the time-series snap shots.

... and hopefully you'll be able to find out who made off with your expensive camera.

Re:It's a Horta!

[hazem]

Easy! You just put a camera to watch the camera...

I wonder if they can just "tag" the rocks like they do with sharks, elephants, walruses, etc. I mean, I know the rocks don't have ears or collars, but there has to be a way.

Re:

[Carnildo]

There are a number of reasons why they haven't:
* The rocks don't move very often -- typically once every two or three years.
* Cheap webcams have only been around for a few years, and I don't know if there have been any movement episodes during this time.
* It's an incredibly hostile environment for electronic equipment: surface temperatures of 150+ degrees F during summer days, temperatures below zero F during winter nights, violent rainstorms, and intense direct sunlight.
* There is no electricity. There is

Re:It's a Horta!

[vought]

Given the hottest temperature ever recorded in the United States is 56.7 degrees celsius (134.1 degrees fahrenheit) I find it impossible to believe this small part of America regularly gets temperatures of above 65.6 degrees celsius (150F).

A friendly nitpick: surface temperatures on the desert floor - even on light-colored surfaces like the Racetrack - can often rise above 200 degrees F. Note that the ambient temperature may be far cooler than the ground surface.

From a dependable source [pbs.org]:

In the heat of summer, Death Valley roasts in temperatures greater than 120 degrees, cool when compared with the surface temperature of the salt pan. "The ground temperature gets to over 200 degrees [f] at some points here," says Dr. Douglas.

I'd wager that the surface temperatures at the Racetrack in early afternoon during high summer range above the boiling point of water at sea level*, since the racetrack's playa is lower and darker than the salt pan at Badwater. In other words, don't fall; you'll skin and burn your knees.

If you've never been to Death Valley in the summer, you should give it a try. If you're from a mild climate, I suggest March instead; the regular 90 degree temperatures before April has shown it's face will give you a little idea of the radical heat that this region experiences.

*The Racetrack and Badwater are both below sea level, so you'd need to get up to at least 240f to boil water.

Re:It's a Horta!

[martinX]

They won't move if they know they're being watched.

Obvious Answer!!

[explosivejared]

Anyone who has seen an M Night Shamylan movie or been involved in a Usenet discussion about UFO's can readily see that there is one glaringly obvious answer...

IT'S ALIENS GUYS!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!

So this is...

[Anonymous Coward]

...nature's version of desert curling?

I think

[0racle]

I think that I can safely speak for everyone here when I say, 'WTF?'

Re:Global Warming

[AlamedaStone]

because teutonic plate theory was just too crazy to accept...
 
... although it replaced the even more silly Gaulish plate theory, quickly discarded by history.

Re:

[Broken scope]

Man I just couldn't pick between.

1:But the Teutonic order wasn't formed till the end of the 12th century!

2: Man i really am glad science moved away from that medieval idea of plate tectonics.

Re:

[Broken scope]

God damnit, you just missed an opportunity for comedy gold.

Answer on page 42 ...

[foobsr]

... literally:
Quote: "Research of the Racetrack has continued. In the April 1997 GPS World, Paula Messina, Phil Stoffer and Keith C. Clarke reported a GPS study they conducted of the Racetrack. In ten days of intense field work they mapped every featured of the playa using differential GPS to produce, "the first-ever, complete, georeferenced, submeter-resolution map of the wandering rocks." (Messina, 1997, p. 42)"
http://sophia.smith.edu/~lfletche/deathvalley.html [smith.edu]

But it seems they have no real conclusion too.

What about 'The Force"?

CC.

Re:Answer on page 42 ...

[orclevegam]

GAH! MY EYES!!! Put a warning on that link, geez.

Re:

[choongiri]

What? Barney the Dinosaur got a job as a research assistant?

Re:

[Kimos]

I didn't really notice the offensiveness of that website. Guess it's one of the rare occasions where I'm happy to be colorblind.

Begs the question

[orclevegam]

This begs the question, why hasn't someone setup a webcam to record these rock movements and solve this thing once and for all? I mean, if they can setup cameras in the arctic circle, death valley shouldn't be that hard to handle.

Not even a webcam.

[khasim]

Take MOVIES of the stupid things ... and have devices in view that measure the wind speed and the temperature.

Also, build a rock with different measuring devices in it and see if IT moves.

Re:

[smooth wombat]

why hasn't someone setup a webcam to record these rock movements and solve this thing once and for all?

The reason is because there is no way to know when these rocks, or which rocks, will move. Since we don't currently know what causes them to move, there is no way to wait for those conditions and then start filming. Even with the best guess (wind + water or ice) you'd still have the multi-choice selection of subjects to choose from.

What would have to be done is to have multiple cameras pointing a

Re:

[orclevegam]

Well, I figured it would probably take a year or so of monitoring before you got lucky enough to catch one in the cameras viewing angle, which is why I was thinking webcams that you could just leave there year around. As for stealing it, maybe an enclosure? Plus, I mean, it's a webcam, if someone tries to steal it at least you'll be able to get a recording of them doing it.

Re:

[smooth wombat]

if someone tries to steal it at least you'll be able to get a recording of them doing it.

Not if they come up from behind it or wear a mask. Trust me, if there is something to be stolen, someone will figure a way to do it. Take a look at the houses in Detroit (and other places) which are up for foreclosure. People are stealing the siding off of them to be sold as scrap.

Re:Begs the question

[fbjon]

It still seems strange. The place is really dry, meaning there's lots of sun. Just make a small package with a GPS receiver, some simple weather instruments, a radio uplink to a nearby relay, a small camera and a solar panel with battery. If the GPS detects any movement, or the weather instruments detect any drastic changes, turn on all other stuff and start piping data to the relay, which passes it on by whatever means.

If anybody steals the package, it'll sound an alert and record who took it, and where they're taking it.

Re:

[Maint_Pgmr_3]

I agree, if "they" [USGS] can put spiders on MT ST Helens to see how the dome is growing and moving, you would think that someone could tape a small GPS on the rock. Duct tape shouldn't change the movement by much.

better yet, put a small weather station, ala north pole, on a sled and leave it in the middle of the playa and see what the weather conditions are and when it moves. 12 volt battery and an automotive condenser should discourage people from disturbing the sled.

Re:

[Target Drone]

This begs the question, why hasn't someone setup a webcam to record these rock movements and solve this thing once and for all?

Why not just take some water and a fan up to there to test the leading theory. Wet down a patch of ground to get it nice an slippery and then turn on the fan to see if you can blow a rock around. If that fails then go with the webcam.

Re:

[Bob(TM)]

Yeah, but ... how you gonna keep the webcam from sliding? :)

Re:

[mdielmann]

Yeah, but ... how you gonna keep the webcam from sliding? :)

First you take a stick and pound it into the ground. Then you attach a camera to it.
If necessary, a traffic light [howstuffworks.com] can be added to increase accuracy.

Re:

[Random Destruction]

I'm siding with Paul Brians on this one.
http://wsu.edu/~brians/errors/begs.html [wsu.edu]

Raises the question != Begs the question.

Isn't it obvious yet?

[CitznFish]

These stones don't want to gather any moss.

Re:

[spun]

While we know that rolling stones gather no moss, more research is needed to determine whether sliding stones do. My hypothesis is that they would in fact gather moss, as the same side is always pointing up. Now I'll just need a $500,000 grant to find out for sure.

Re:

[NeilTheStupidHead]

More importantly, don't build any glass houses near here!

no buildup in front

[egburr]

In all those pictures, I don't see any buildup of dust in front of the rocks, though there is plenty on the sides of the paths. Usually, when I push something through the dirt/mud/snow/whatever, I end up with a good buildup in front, too. I wonder where that has gone.

Re:no buildup in front

[Reality Master 101]

In all those pictures, I don't see any buildup of dust in front of the rocks, though there is plenty on the sides of the paths. Usually, when I push something through the dirt/mud/snow/whatever, I end up with a good buildup in front, too. I wonder where that has gone.

I had to think about this for a second... I think the answer is that if a rock was digging into the mud, you wouldn't have this effect, because of having to shove the mass of the mud. If you look at the pictures, the fronts of a lot of them tend to be sticking up, implying they're "surfing" over the mud.

Re:

[Evil Pete]

Yes I noticed too. I also noticed that the rocks pictured were not random shapes. The front of the rocks looking more like a slidable(?) geometry. Perhaps the rocks are not pushing any mud in front of them but riding over it. Too many ifs. We need some observations.

Obviously mud

[InvisblePinkUnicorn]

The rocks wouldn't by themselves leave such deep impressions and well-developed ridges along the path unless they were moving through mud.

Re:

[geekoid]

Except this is old and it's a really thin piece of ice.
Because there isn't a place windy enough to push a 100 pound rock through a 1/4 inch of mud. SOmething must be lowering the friction AND be thin enough to break.

Re:

[InvisblePinkUnicorn]

Maybe the ground has a slight tilt.

Magnetism?

[teknopurge]

Do the rocks have a large iron content? I wonder how the magnetic fields are in the area...

Re:Magnetism?

[Rob T Firefly]

Do the rocks have a large iron content?

I hope not. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's ironic rock.

Re:Magnetism?

[spun]

Ironic rock is worse than rai-e-ain on your wedding day, or a free-ee ride, when you already paid.

I am pretty sure ...

[Culture]

... that the rocks slide because the lateral forces exerted on the rocks exceed the static and dynamic frictional force cause by the gravity induced weight of the rock acting across the mud-rock interface. I guess I could be wrong and there are worm-holes involved.

Re:

[Al Al Cool J]

Not necessarily. Some kind of localised microtremor could cause the ground to jolt quickly beneath the rock by a small amount. The rock would stay more or less motionless in the Earth's reference frame, while the ground moves quickly beneath it, its frictional forces unable to overcome the rock's inertia. The ground could then settle back to its original place more slowly, this time taking the rock with it.

god doesn't play dice

[circletimessquare]

but he does hold magnets under the surface of the table, moving objects on top as if by magic, just to bemuse and entertain us

One thing I know for sure

[mcg1969]

is that posting this article in Slashdot is sure to produce a definitive solution to the mystery...
or rather, 100 of them.

I for one

[Lucas123]

welcome our new sliding rock overlords, even though it will likely be a very slow conquest.

Re:

[mcmonkey]

Don't hate the playa; hate the game.

Its not that hard to figure out!

[Henneshoe]

If there is really this much interest in figuring out how the rocks move, its pretty easy to do. Mount a solar powered camera with a motion detector. If the rock moves start shooting. If you really want to get fancy, you could do a continual time lapse to catch the movement if it is too slow for the motion detector. I think they do this kinda thing when you want to get pictures of wild animals in there natural habitat and the cameras are avaliable at your nearest outdoor outfitter.

Re:

[fahrbot-bot]

Mount a solar powered camera with a motion detector. If the rock moves start shooting.

Logic dictates that they'll then only move at night... :-)

FSM

[Anonymous Coward]

They were obviously moved by his noodly appendages.

Skeptoid

[Myopic]

The Skeptoid podcast addressed this issue and presented a theory. Most theories have the wind pushing the rocks, but that doesn't make much sense since it's hard for wind to push a big rock a long way without rolling. Skeptoid says the lake is sometimes frozen (we're talking about very shallow water here) so there is a layer of ice thru which the rocks protrude. At this point the wind acts on the whole sheet of ice which has the power to slide the rocks without rolling them.

Yeah, that or it's space aliens w

Re:

[NeilTheStupidHead]

Another theory that I've heard (which isn't mentioned in this article) is that the daily expansion and contraction of these rocks causes them to inch along. No idea how plausible any of these theories are. Until we set up a camera (including one that can take night shots) and record it, we won't know for sure.

Problem solved

[daves]

It rains. Water freezes into large floating sheets. Sheets are blown around. Rocks move.

I for one...

[popo]

...welcome our new geological overlords.

Silly scientists...

[VE3MTM]

Clearly the Flying Spaghetti Monster is moving them with his Noodly Appendage.

Trolls!

[Ecuador]

Sorry guys, but I personally don't have to see a photo in the far-octarine to tell that these are your average, semi-bored trolls. They will obviously just look like rocks to the untrained eye during daytime, but they are no puzzle to someone who's been around the disc...

duh!

[sunking2]

Stupid scientists. It's the Graboids doing it. And Kevin Bacon HAS seen them.

What mystery?

[Kozar_The_Malignant]

From our friend wikipedia [wikipedia.org] we learn: "Professor John Reid led six research students from Hampshire College and the University of Massachusetts in a follow-up study in 1995. They found highly congruent trails from stones that moved in the late 1980s and during the winter of 1992-1993. At least some stones were proved beyond a reasonable doubt to have been moved in ice flows that may be up to half a mile (800 m) wide. Physical evidence included swaths of lineated areas that could only have been created by movi

Re:

[sunking2]

Hampshire college. Can we look for an explanation that didn't come about from smoking massive amounts of dope in the middle of the desert.

Tax Dollars at Work!

[lionchild]

I sense that there are some tax dollars at work, or soon to be at work on this very question! Perhaps we could have the government fund a study to watch these rocks, observe them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, record their activity, and uncover the truth! It's for science! ;-)

The rocks are stable...

[planckscale]

...it is the earth that is moving underneath them. Perhaps there is enough of a lift by a small mud sheet that the rotational forces of the earth allow the rocks to slide on top.

Runaway solution

[denominateur]

There's obviously a runaway solution in the differential equation governing that part of the Matrix.

One possibilty

[edwardpickman]

I'd be curious if the under sides of the sliding sliding stones were concave? Why I mention it is I still remember a certain chinese restaurant's tea cups had a habit of sliding across the table. The table tops were resin coated and the concave cups tended to capture moisture under them so when the tea heated the moisture under the cup the expansion provided enough lift to break the friction and allow them to slide. They would move randomly in different directions then stop for a few minutes then slide again. Since the area is hot a unique combination of heated rocks with slippery mud and wind could in combination cause the effect. I remember that some rocks slid and others didn't as well as the direction changes.

Hmm

[scubamage]

This is really cool actually. My guess would be high wind, tied with a low friction surface. Long flat stretches of land tend to equate to massively strong winds. The ground is bone dry, so I'd guess that adding water is going to first add a layer of water that the rock would travel on, and not so much the ground itself. As the water begins to soak into the ground the rock will face more and more resistance because its traveling on progressively more silt and clay than water. Has anyone seen any arial phot

Problem with the ice or even water theory

[SmallFurryCreature]

The cracked effect is what you get when muds dries out, the effect is NOT visible in the trails. How can this be IF the rocks moved when the mud was still there? There is a cracked effect in the trail but it is crushed, the effect you would expect if the rocks had been moved AFTER the ripple effect had already started to form, AFTER the mud started to dry or even when it was already dry.

But if the rocks moved on ice then AFTER the ice melted there would be mud, that if dried would show the same pattern all around the newly positioned rock with just the ridges of the trail left. NOT flattened dried mud.

As for purely the wind moving them, how fast do the winds get there anyway? Wind can be extremely powerfull even in areas with lots of obstructions, in open areas, well if it can pick up/move trucks, why not rocks? Far heavier things are lifted up by air alone, how do you think aircraft work?

Re:

[stoolpigeon]

has anyone checked the mitichlorian levels in the area?

Re:Any word on magnetic influence?

[$RANDOMLUSER]

Actually, it's caused by the continential tilt. It causes all the loose cannons and nuts and bolts to roll towards California.

Re:Any word on magnetic influence?

[TempeNerd]

Obviously, the rocks were casually lurking on Slashdot, when they read "Move along, nothing to see here..."

{rimshot}

Everything must be ruled in or out, but...

[ackthpt]

Re:Any word on magnetic influence? I'd guess it isn't wind...are these rocks ferrous? Or...maybe the earth is tilting on its side...weird stuff like that always happens here...I think our perspective of it is just off a bit.

I've camped a few times at Texas Spring campground in Death Valley. Nice place in the right times of the year. One year, however, the wind blew all night at about 40 knots. Nearly took me and my tent away. There are sand dunes to the north of the valley, too. I expect the winds there are more than up to the task of pushing around rocks on moist clay. Perhaps most enigmatic is the question, 'Why don't these larger rocks sink into the mud?' Though with strong enough winds, I imagine they could get a

Re:

[mpathetiq]

From TFA:

Some researchers have found highly congruent trails on multiple rocks that strongly support this movement theory. However, the transport of a large ice sheet might be expected to mark the playa surface in other ways - these marks have not been found.

Other researchers experimented with stakes that would be disturbed by ice sheets. The rocks moved without disturbing the stakes. The evidence for ice-sheet transport is not consistent.

Re:

[An ominous Cow art]

At the time those pictures were taken, the ground had been baked solid. Footprints don't show up well. But when I was there this summer, I did see footprints made when the ground was muddy. There are signs telling you not to walk out there when it's wet - footprints can persist for quite a long time.

MOD PARENT UP!

[denzacar]

Thank you!

I remember this thing from back in '80s and even back then it was obvious that its water+wind+ice that makes the rocks move.

What is next? Channels on Mars?

Re:

[leehwtsohg]

In the linked video, you see water and foam on top of the water being pushed by wind, not rocks moving, as far as I could tell. The also mention something about vast sheets of ice forming, though no explaination how the ice fit in to the picture. In other words, what I understood was: it has something to do with wind, water, mud, ice, but we don't know exactly how or what.

Re:

[Ambiguous Coward]

Come now...while I agree that the video is (mildly) interesting, it is not what you claim. But beside that, the article doesn't say "there's no possible explanation" at all. In fact, the article presents at least a couple possible explanations. In fact, and I say this with every ounce of *gasp* I can muster, the article presents an explanation for the moving rocks that is identical to the one presented in the video! Did you happen to read the article? You ought to. It's relevant to this discussion.

-G

Re:Amazing how no-one bothers to actually CHECK.

[DigitalCrackPipe]

In true /. form, you either failed to RTFA or to WTFV, as the video clearly does not show the rocks moving. It shows water and miscelaneous floating scum moving, and posits the same theories as in the article (just claiming them to have been proven).

And as to the foolishly simple explanation, H.L. Mekcken is quoted to have said, "Every complex problem has a solution that is simple, direct, plausible, and wrong".

Re:Amazing how no-one bothers to actually CHECK.

[evanbd]

Did you watch the video carefully? They offer a very authoritative sounding explanation of the water / ice theory presented as one option in the article, but don't actually capture rocks in motion on film. There's water moving, and some sort of foam on top of the water, but that's about it. As the original article says, there's lots of evidence in favor of this theory, but also evidence against it being that simple -- like experiments involving undisturbed stakes and such. As far as I can tell, that seems to be a piece of the explanation, but not the whole explanation.

That was Strangely Topical.

[Smordnys s'regrepsA]

Rick Rolled while Reading about Rolling Rock Research, by a link Represented as Relevant.

I Require you Rectify this Rankling Repugnance.


Regards,
Ryan