There are plenty of mysterious places on the planet. Scientists do not have time to find logical explanations for their phenomena. Similarly, moving stones from the Death Valley in California seem to be obvious facts, but there is no documented evidence.
Phenomenon
Mysterious stones are located at the bottom of the dried-up Reistrake Playa Lake, which is surrounded by mountains. Rare showers give him the opportunity to partially fill with water. It flows down the slopes, but does not linger for a long time. The sun and harsh winds quickly dry moisture. Clay soil is cracking.
Different sizes of stones are randomly scattered along the bottom. Periodically, they change their location, spontaneously moving around the soil and leaving characteristic furrows in it that cannot be confused with anything else. The direction of movement of the stones is different. That is, they move absolutely unpredictably. Some lumps can move in parallel for some time, then dramatically change the vector to the side, back, or even roll over. How everything happens, why they begin to move and why they stop, is not known for certain.
Many people wonder why stones move in Death Valley. Some come to look at them to solve the mystery, suspecting a trick, while others are confident in the mystical nature of these phenomena. There are those who try to ride on blocks. Cases of missing stones are known - there is a groove on the surface of the bottom of the lake, but the cobblestone itself is gone.
Terrain
The valley of moving stones is in California. This place is considered one of the driest on the planet. Among other things, the valley has the deepest depression of land in the Western Hemisphere (86 meters below sea level).
The maximum temperature (57 ºC) was recorded in 1913. Nowadays, in the summer in the valley for 40 ºC, in winter - on average a little above zero. The valley is surrounded by mountains. Scientists suggest that they are still rising from the bowels of the earth, while the plateau is lowering. Mountains do not allow air flow with life-giving moisture. But during the rainy season there are floods, and in the lowlands, drying lakes form.
Ore was once mined in the valley. Immigrants washed gold, searched for silver, built borax processing plants. But climatic conditions did not allow to deploy serious production. People were leaving, towns around the mines were desolate.
History: Valley of Moving Stones (California)
It is believed that a thousand years ago this territory and the entire Mojave desert was inhabited by the Indian tribes of Timbis. There are suggestions that their descendants still live in the vicinity of the valley. Then the climate in the region was not so severe, and the Indians could survive through hunting and gathering. The tribes left, they were replaced by others, but the stones remained.
The first immigrants from Europe appeared in California with the onset of the gold rush. There is evidence that in 1849 prospectors decided to drive through the territory of the present valley in order to shorten their path to the nearest gold mines. For several weeks they wandered around the plateau, looking for a way out. They had to endure serious trials, because they did not know about the harsh climate of the territory. When they crossed the Wingate Pas Mountains, the terrain that they crossed was called Death Valley. On the way, the prospectors had to look for water in order to survive, digging up drying streams and feed on their pack animals.
Death Valley
Stones move there not everywhere and not constantly. But this does not stop travelers. Despite the harsh climate, the area in 1933 received the status of a monument of national importance. Once they came there because of healing springs. Later, after the desolation of the miners' towns, the tourists went to see the abandoned mines, houses, streets, quarters.
Now the valley is a large-scale tourist complex. The park covers more than 13, 000 square kilometers. People come there to admire amazing landscapes. In addition to the valley with moving stones and amazing mountains, visitors can see the crater of the Ubehebe volcano, visit the lowest point of the Western Hemisphere - Bedwater Salt Lake, admire the views from the Zabriiski Point observation deck, visit the Artist's Palette and the famous Scotty Castle.
Tourism
Park "Death Valley" (America, California) is considered the largest in the region. The service and infrastructure there are organized at a high level. For those who want to enjoy the amazing scenery there is the opportunity to stay in one of the hotels or choose a campsite with guest houses. Routes, tracks and paths are laid and thought out for the convenience of tourists in such a way as to maximize the beauty of the surrounding places.
The park consists of two valleys surrounded by mountain systems. Significant are Mount Telescope and Dantez View. The most visited part of the valley is Furnes Creek. To make the journey easier, you can ride a horse. This will allow us not to be distracted by the difficulties of the transition and focus on the landscape: snowy peaks, rocks, canyons, salt plateaus, lakes.
For those who like to tickle their nerves, there is a route to the abandoned Riolight - the “ghost town” abandoned by prospectors almost a hundred years ago. The crater of the Ubehebe volcano, extinct seven thousand years ago, with a width of almost a kilometer and a depth of 200 m, also attracts attention, as do the “creeping” stones at the bottom of Lake Reistrake Playa.
Data
Are there any moving stones anywhere else on the planet? Death Valley (USA) is unique in its way. However, information about such movements came at different times and from other places on the planet. The history of Sin-stone and its Far Eastern counterpart is known. Near Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan and in the foothills of Alatau - their own crawling cobblestones. In Tibet, the Buddha Stone weighing more than a ton has been moving up and down in a spiral for one and a half thousand years.
What happens at the bottom of Lake Raistrake Playa? This flat area is located at an altitude of more than one kilometer above sea level. The bottom of the lake with a length of 4.5 km and a width of 2.2 km has a slope of only 1-2 cm per kilometer. On this territory cobblestones are randomly scattered. The vast majority of them rolled down from the dolomite hills. All stones of various sizes and weights (up to several hundred kilograms).
It was established that these blocks move along the surface. The fact of movement is not recorded on the video. However, there is no doubt that they “travel” without human help. It is impossible to determine or predict the beginning of a movement. Cobblestones come to life once every few years. If you are lucky, you can observe the updating of positions every year. It was not possible to reliably determine what the movements are associated with, but it was noted that their activity mainly manifests itself in the winter.
Traces
Moving stones leave furrows on the bottom of the lake. In most cases, they remain visible for several years. The depth of the track reaches 2.5 cm with a width of massive specimens up to 30 cm.
Facts indicate that the mass and size of the “creeping” fragments of dolomite rock are not significant. Five hundred gram copies and blocks weighing over three hundred kilograms moved.
During active research for one period of activity, a six-centimeter (in diameter) pebbles made the maximum distance. He "crawled" more than 200 meters. The most massive instance, which showed activity in the same period, weighed 36 kg.
Traces left by ribbed stones are more even. If the plane of the fragment is relatively smooth, then the groove most often “wags” from side to side. Some traces give reason to believe that in the process of moving the stones turned over on their side.
Myths and hypotheses
The desert where the stones move, besides this geological phenomenon, has no other obvious deviations from the norm. True, in the mountains surrounding the valley, there was once an eruption of a volcano that left a crater more than a kilometer wide. But this happened a few thousand years ago.
How to explain the phenomenon of self-moving stones? There are supporters of mystical theory. Some people who visited the Death Valley spoke about the presence of some discomfort, but it is difficult to determine its cause. Whether this is due to geomagnetic fields is unknown.
There is still a theory that every stone carries a certain essence that cannot be scientifically explained. A group of scientists not only dealing with this phenomenon suggests that moving stones are manifestations of another, more ancient silicon form of life.
The myths about aliens and tricks of evil spirits did not pass by the Death Valley. Since the beginning of the study of the phenomenon, hypotheses have been put forward about seismic activity in the region and the impact of complex geomagnetic fields.
In general, there is room for imagination. Anyone can choose a suitable theory as a basis and try to prove it or refute it after a visit to the valley. The mystery, which is still present, attracts not only tourists, travelers, but also scientists to these places. It is believed that the area where such phenomena appear is part of the anomalous zones, and there are always enough supporters to tickle your nerves.
Official version
Until recently, it was believed that moving stones are a consequence of the unique combination and interaction of clay soil, water, wind and ice. It was not possible to establish which of the elements plays a decisive role, and which is an auxiliary one.
Presumably in winter, when the greatest locomotor activity is manifested, the soil of the lake bottom is in a wet state due to the presence of precipitation during this period. Wet clay soil has a low coefficient of friction. Frost on the surface of stones and temperature changes also affect gliding.
Gusts of wind, which sometimes reaches high speeds and has turbulence similar to the tornado effect, can trigger the onset of movement. The unevenness, chaotic directions of the vectors, as well as the unpredictability of the onset of activity can be the result of a unique coincidence of wind strength, humidity and temperature conditions.
Research
The study of the geological phenomenon was seriously taken up in the middle of the last century. Expeditions traveled to the valley, set up tent camps, conducted lengthy observations, experiments, and experiments, but failed to record the movement of stones.
A number of questions arose: "Why do the stones not pile together, do not focus closer to some of the shores of the dried lake? Why do they move rarely and just when there is not a single witness with a camera nearby?" Nevertheless, there were no serious prerequisites for the falsification of traces of the movement.
Thomas Clement in the winter of 1952 witnessed a severe storm. He watched the stones for a long time, but one of the nights was forced to shelter from the weather in a tent. The next morning he discovered fresh furrows and suggested that the reason was in the wind, water, and soil soaked from streams.
Since 1972, a unique phenomenon has been studied by Robert Sharp and Dwight Carey. They selected 30 stones for observation, weighed and measured the debris, gave them names, and for seven years they took evidence of their location. In 1995, a group of professors John Reid dealt with the same problem.
Moving stones at the end of the last century even became the subject of a successfully defended dissertation. From 1993 to 1998, geologist Paul Messina explored the area and compared the location of 160 stones using GPS sensors. She also determined the composition of the rock fragments and discovered colonies of bacteria in a clay layer at the bottom of a drying lake.
