Amid the eerie silence and the intense 50C heat of California’s Death Valley these roaming rocks appear to patrol the desert. The rocks, some as heavy as 250lbs, move unaided in bizarre straight line patterns across the ultra-flat surface of the valley. Scientists believe the pebbly phenomenon is caused by a melting-pot of specific weather conditions.
Studies suggest a combination of 90mph winds, ice formations at night and thin layers of wet clay on the surface of the desert all combine to push them along. Photographer Mike Byrne, 40, has spent years documenting the mysterious movements of the stones.
As his pictures show these real-life rolling stones leave trails across the sand in places almost untouched by man. He said: “Some of these rocks are as heavy as a person, it is really is strange to imagine them gliding across the desert like this.
“They must be the original real-life rolling stones, they just keep moving through the sand and I don’t think anyone has really 100 per cent worked it out yet.”
Wow! they must have been doing that for eternity…
Why doesn’t someone setup a timelapse camera? Or is the process to long?
Have they been filmed moving? An array of motion sensors linked to cameras should answer the mystery. I would love to see footage of them moving, if available…
Just like the pop group this is a weird phenomania.
Like a Rolling Stone is a phrase from a Muddy Waters song that inspired the Rolling Stones for their band name.
I wonder if they ever saw the true stones rolling, like in the picture.
I reckon it must be Wild Horses moving them there Rolling Stones
They have been filmed remember watching it as a kid – its just a rock moving. lol. The theory is that wind blowing at the front of the rock removes dust and shale from around the bottom. As this becomes more eroded the rocks weight tips it forward mil by mil. In the same way as a waterfall moves further inland. Because the stones density is not uniform it can move faster sometimes and sometimes just stop.
They don’t roll, they are quite clearly sliding.
Not sure if that makes it easier or more difficult to explain.
Wouldn’t the cameras get blown over, covered with sand or lost?
It’s the middle of the desert!
And even if they did stay upright and in working order, they might get hit by a wandering rock!
Scientists have been studying these rocks for over 60 years. Unfortunately a typical rock only moves once every 2 or 3 years so timelapse photograhy isn’t feasable. The most plausable theories seem to suggest that a combination of wind and ice are responsible, although the details of how this happens are scketchy.
I read about these in a book years and years ago.
If I remember rightly at the time the book was written people had spent many nights watching the rocks, but they never moved when they were being watched.
(This may of course have been lies and the book wanted to make it sound more dramatic)
@Elephants child – yeah sorry in this example they are sliding same principle though but using ice as vehicle. In other places (deserts around the world) they roll only because they are shaped in a way that allows this to happen.
look here for a corny example.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1hoiHvOeGc
papa was one…
Why not just set up a camera? That, or, set up a heavy object and place a bunch of gizmos (sensor, cameras, etc) on it to record its movement
Edit.
“Photographer Mike Byrne, 40, has spent years pushing rocks through the desert.”
hehe
I love something that everyone struggles to have an explanation for, bit like crop circles in that respect……
LC x
Yeah, I know this story. Amazed me too .. the fact that it has not been explained makes me think it is a hoax. It’s not that difficult to study it via camera’s etc. And if they don’t .. well, a hoax.
Oh .. wait … it is not stones ofcourse .. it’s vehicles of aliens … thousands of those little aliens in there … running and running (like mouse/rat in their wheel) …. only by night, and only if you don’t watch ..
There’s no way that such heavy stones on flat surfaces could move .. unless a huge river all of a sudden develops there in the middle of the night boosted by strange powers .. ehehe ….
Or are they magnets … but that could have been checked all the time already ..all the options that people came up with.
A hoax in a hoax in a hoax in a hoax ..
can someone go and see if they are mossy…?
I reckon it must be the same people that do them there crop circles, you know the little green men from outer space in their flying saucers. Either that or they are not actually rocks but a strange undiscovered creature called the rock sloth and it moves ever so slowly due to the incredible heat and lack of food.
I bet it’s the same little guy that moved the markers in Labyrinth.
Nopke said “.. unless a huge river all of a sudden develops there in the middle of the night”
The Racetrack Playa is desert but has two rainy seasons delivering up to four inches of rain a year. This causes flooding and It’s also cold enough at night to make the water freeze. Unsurprisingly there are no volunteers to be out on a windy nighttime freezing flood to observe the rocks.
I’m the photographer mentioned here and here’s what I do know for fact : The lakebed is really slimey when it gets wet, something to do with the composition of the soil. The rocks fall from the adjacent cliff/hillside from errosion and earthquakes, then tumble to the surface… The wind blows hard here, hard enough to knock you on your arse! When the slime arrives, with or without ice present, the phenomenon is most likely to occur. Have I seen it? No. Have I slipped on a slimey lake bed? Yes. I think it’s likely the notion is true…then again I like the alien explanation too! A small correction in the write-up, I’ll be 49 in a few months and I have to credit the following folks for being with me on the photo safari: Steve Mendenhall, Sandy Redding, Roger Morehead… Thanx for the interest, Cheers!