Nevada's sliding stones mystery 'solved'!

[MontyVeda]

funily enough i was only thinking about these last week

...it seems they have finally been seen in motion and a viable theory has been attained.

Geologists previously speculated that some combination of wind, rain and ice would have a role. But few expected that the answer would involve ice as thin as windowpanes, pushed by light breezes rather than strong gales.

Source:
http://www.nature.com/news/wandering-stones-of-death-valley-explained-1.15773

 

[Paulus]

This is a problem I have worried about all my adult life. I am so glad, I cannot tell you how glad I am that it has been solved.

 

[SimonJKH]

Oh, Nevada! I'm with you now.

 

[classic33]

Doesn't explain how they moved during the day though.

 

[Drago]

Bloody hell. I'd been blaming UKIP.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Last time I wandered stoned I couldn't remember where I'd been. I'll leave a trace next time.

 

[MontyVeda]

Doesn't explain how they moved during the day though.

erm.... not sure what article you read but... erm...

 

[classic33]

erm.... not sure what article you read but... erm...

They have been recorded as moving during daylight hours. It fails to mention this.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/trave...themselves-across-the-desert-98287558/?no-ist

"During the early 1970s, a pair of geologists—Robert Sharp of Cal Tech and Dwight Carey of UCLA—attempted to settle once and for all whether ice or wind was responsible. The team visited the Racetrack twice a year and meticulously tracked the movements of 30 stones, giving them names (Karen, the largest boulder, was 700 pounds). They planted wooden stakes around the stones, surmising that if ice sheets were responsible, the ice would be frozen to the stakes, thereby immobilizing the stones. But some stones still escaped—and despite frequent visits, the pair never saw one move."

 

[MontyVeda]

They have been recorded as moving during daylight hours. It fails to mention this.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/trave...themselves-across-the-desert-98287558/?no-ist

"During the early 1970s, a pair of geologists—Robert Sharp of Cal Tech and Dwight Carey of UCLA—attempted to settle once and for all whether ice or wind was responsible. The team visited the Racetrack twice a year and meticulously tracked the movements of 30 stones, giving them names (Karen, the largest boulder, was 700 pounds). They planted wooden stakes around the stones, surmising that if ice sheets were responsible, the ice would be frozen to the stakes, thereby immobilizing the stones. But some stones still escaped—and despite frequent visits, the pair never saw one move."

i have no idea what you/re on about.

 

[Peteaud]

Pixies move things, ask my wife.

 

[classic33]

i have no idea what you/re on about.

The same stones having been recorded as moving during daylight hours. Very little chance of ice.
&
An earlier study which dis-proved the ice theory.

 

[MontyVeda]

OK.... i suppose your opinion and an earlier study supersedes this recent research.

....
on the morning of 20 December. “It was a beautiful sunny day, and there began to be rippled melt pools in front of us,” Richard Norris says. “At 11:37 a.m., very abruptly, there was a pop-pop-crackle all over the place in front of us — and I said to my cousin, ‘This is it.’ ”
They watched as the ice began moving past the rocks, mostly breaking apart but also shoving them gently. The rocks began to inch along, but their pace was too slow to spot by eye. “A baby can get going a lot faster than your average rock,” Richard Norris says.

But when the ice melted away that afternoon, they saw freshly formed trails left behind by more than 60 moving rocks

not much chance of ice...

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I've just remembered I don't give a ****.