Mysterious Moving Rocks

Death Valley National Park, California

In Death Valley there's a playa (a dried mudflat) two miles long named "The Racetrack." Rocks tumble onto its south end from adjacent mountains, settle into position, and then move by themselves across the table-top terrain, leaving visible trails in the dried mud. Some scientists claim that the rocks are moved by hurricane-force winds that sometimes sweep the playa after a rare rainfall -- but no one has ever seen this happen. Others say they move on thin sheets of rare winter ice. But some of these rocks weigh hundreds of pounds and move hundreds of feet, often taking sharp turns, leaving their tattletale trails as evidence.

We think that Mineral Intelligence is an area of science that deserves more scrutiny. And if the rocks really aren't that smart, maybe it's Spook Lights, taunting them to move.