Science is amazing, but can sometimes make the world a less miraculous place. These are stones at "The Racetrack" in Death Valley. The Racetrack is far from anything - at the end of a long dirt road where humanity seems far far away.
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And for years - decades - hundreds of years, the mystery of the stones has been an enigma (and not the kind that Matthew McConaughy found). These massive stones leave tracks across the mud flats, but no one knows how they move.
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Or they didn't. Scientist put GPD trackers on them and the once every 20 year event happened in less than 5.
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Turns out it is a very very light sheen of ice that melts on the land just before it does around the rocks. That and the right wind pushes the stones across the lake bed. It is rare, but it happened and scientist bolted out to see what was happening and caught it. (Story on Huffington Post and ABC News)
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For Ed's birthday a while back, Eddie, Lynn and I had trekked out to see them for ourselves. It was surreal. And magical. Going forward it will still be surreal, but a little less magical.
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