Sailing Stones Travelling Together on the Racetrack - Death Valley

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Sailing Stones Travelling Together on the Racetrack - Death Valley

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Sailing Stones with parallel curvy tracks on the Racetrack dry lake in Death Valley (California)

Sailing stones are rocks that move in long tracks on the smooth and perfectly flat surface of a dry lake, without human or animal intervention. The rocks are most likely propelled by strong winds while entrapped in floating ice sheets (or icebergs), after winter rains flooded the dry lake and made the mud soft and slippery.

Those 3 rocks that made perfectly parallel tracks have most likely traveled at the same time while encased in the same ice sheet (or iceberg) that kept them moving together.

For more photos and information about the Racetrack sailing stones, go to my Sailing Stones photo series.

Date & GPS location
Photo taken on February 8, 2012
Teakettle Junction, Inyo county, California, United States
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