Racetrack Playa
The Racetrack Playa is a dry lake found within Death Valley National Park, California. It is famous for a very mysterious phenomenon that takes place here. The Racetrack Playa is where stones move alone, with no animal or human intervention.
Hundreds and hundreds of rocks scattered about this surface have left trails behind them where they have moved across the surface. The stones vary from pebble size to half-tonne boulders in size and shape. Their tracks also vary in length and go every way from zigzags to loops and sometimes they double back on themselves. Some travel only a few feet; others go for hundreds of metres.
The Racetrack Playa is a seasonally dry lake, meaning that in times of heavy rains, water fills the lake, and under the heat of the hot sun, it dries back. It can also freeze in winter and early spring, leading to the first of many possible theories that the rocks move because of the newly-formed ice sheets after the Playa is flooded. Another explanation is that the high winds drive the stones; on rare occasions when the playa is wet enough to be extremely slippery, conditions are just right.
Nobody has ever seen a rock move, and the best part is that no scientist has been able to come up with a satisfying reason for this mystery till now, despite all the explanations given!
