Trail formation by ice-shoved "sailing stones" observed at Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park
- 1Applied Physics Laboratory, The Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, Maryland, USA
- 2Interwoof, Santa Barbara, California, USA
- 3Dept.~of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution for Science, Washington, D.C., USA
- 4Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California, USA
- 5University of Portland, Oregon, USA
- 1Applied Physics Laboratory, The Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, Maryland, USA
- 2Interwoof, Santa Barbara, California, USA
- 3Dept.~of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution for Science, Washington, D.C., USA
- 4Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California, USA
- 5University of Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract. Trails in the usually-hard mud of Racetrack Playa in Death Valley National Park attest to the seemingly-improbable movement of massive rocks on an exceptionally flat surface. The movement of these rocks, previously described as "sliding stones", "playa scrapers", "sailing stones" etc., has been the subject of speculation for almost a century but is an exceptionally rare phenomenon and until now has not been directly observed. Here we report documentation of multiple rock movement and trail formation events in the winter of 2013–2014 by in situ observation, video, timelapse cameras, a dedicated meteorological station and GPS tracking of instrumented rocks. Movement involved dozens of rocks, forming fresh trails typically of 10s of meters length at speeds of ~5 cm s−1 and were caused by wind stress on a transient thin layer of floating ice. Fracture and local thinning of the ice decouples some rocks from the ice movement, such that only a subset of rocks move in a given event.
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R. D. Lorenz et al.


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RC C376: 'Referee Comments', R Aileen Yingst, 15 Sep 2014
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RC C511: 'Review', Roger Hooke, 27 Nov 2014
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AC C512: 'Response to reviews - additional information on rock breakup and on ice buckling', Ralph D. Lorenz, 12 Dec 2014


-
RC C376: 'Referee Comments', R Aileen Yingst, 15 Sep 2014
-
RC C511: 'Review', Roger Hooke, 27 Nov 2014
-
AC C512: 'Response to reviews - additional information on rock breakup and on ice buckling', Ralph D. Lorenz, 12 Dec 2014
R. D. Lorenz et al.
R. D. Lorenz et al.
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Cited
2 citations as recorded by crossref.
- Sliding Bones: Movement of Skeletal Material Over Smith Creek Playa in Nevada and Its Taphonomic and Paleontologic Implications G. Baumgardner & B. Shaffer 10.3398/064.075.0213
- A timelapse camera dataset and Markov model of dust devil activity at Eldorado playa, Nevada, USA R. Lorenz et al. 10.1016/j.aeolia.2018.04.003