![]() ![]() 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. In the following decades, theories drifted towards ice, which can occasionally form on the playa during the winter. In 1952, another geologist tested this hypothesis as directly as he knew how: He soaked a stretch of the playa and used a plane’s propeller to create powerful winds. They proposed that dust devils caused the strange movement, perhaps in combination with the playa’s intermittent flooding. “But of course, as soon as you remove them from the playa, all ‘magic’ is lost.”īut if they’re not magic, what really does cause the stones to sail? In 1948, two USGS geologists named Jim McAllister and Allen Agnew set out to answer the question. “I don't know whether people think they're ‘magic rocks,’” he says. Some present-day visitors apparently agree-Van Valkenburg notes that stone theft is a growing problem, perhaps because of perceived special properties. “And the longer you stay out there, it just takes on this incredible sense of mystery.” The mystery is rooted in an extraordinary fact: No one has ever actually seen the rocks move.Įxplanations for the stones’ movement have tended towards the absurd (magnetism, aliens and mysterious energy fields, for example). “It’s very quiet out there, and it’s very open, and you tend to have the playa to yourself,” says Alan Van Valkenburg, a park ranger who has worked at Death Valley for nearly 20 years. Staring at these " sailing stones," you’re torn between a pair of certainties that are simply not compatible: (1) these rocks appear to have moved, propelled by their own volition, across the flat playa floor, and yet (2) rocks don’t just move themselves. Some tracks are straight and just a few feet long, while others stretch the length of a football field and curve gracefully or jut off at sharp angles. Ranging from the size of a computer mouse to a microwave, each one is followed by a track etched into the dirt, like the contrail behind an airplane. But the dozens of stones scattered across the playa floor are the most puzzling part of the view. During summer, the cracked floor looks prehistoric under the desert sun during winter, it’s intermittently covered by sheets of ice and dustings of snow. Racetrack Playa is a dried-up lakebed, ringed by mountains, about 3 miles long and flat as a tabletop. ![]() But soon after cresting the Cottonwood Mountains, you’ll come upon a landscape so out of place even in this geologically bizarre park that it almost seems artificial. During the drive-which will take you four hours if you make good time-you’ll pass sand dunes, a meteor crater, narrow canyons, solitary Joshua trees and virtually no evidence of human existence whatsoever. Drive 50 miles north on pavement, then head west for another 30 miles on bone-rattling gravel roads. HFS clients enjoy state-of-the-art warehousing, real-time access to critical business data, accounts receivable management and collection, and unparalleled customer service.Start at the Furnace Creek visitor center in Death Valley National Park. HFS provides print and digital distribution for a distinguished list of university presses and nonprofit institutions. MUSE delivers outstanding results to the scholarly community by maximizing revenues for publishers, providing value to libraries, and enabling access for scholars worldwide. Project MUSE is a leading provider of digital humanities and social sciences content, providing access to journal and book content from nearly 300 publishers. With warehouses on three continents, worldwide sales representation, and a robust digital publishing program, the Books Division connects Hopkins authors to scholars, experts, and educational and research institutions around the world. With critically acclaimed titles in history, science, higher education, consumer health, humanities, classics, and public health, the Books Division publishes 150 new books each year and maintains a backlist in excess of 3,000 titles. The division also manages membership services for more than 50 scholarly and professional associations and societies. ![]() The Journals Division publishes 85 journals in the arts and humanities, technology and medicine, higher education, history, political science, and library science. The Press is home to the largest journal publication program of any U.S.-based university press. One of the largest publishers in the United States, the Johns Hopkins University Press combines traditional books and journals publishing units with cutting-edge service divisions that sustain diversity and independence among nonprofit, scholarly publishers, societies, and associations. ![]()
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