Death Valleys moving rocks caught in the act

August 29, 2014 01:45

One of the most enduring mysteries of the Death Valley, a desert valley located in Eastern California's Mojave Desert, has been solved by what one researcher called the most boring experiment ever.

For decades, people have puzzled over Racetrack Playa, where hundreds of rocks weighing as much as 700 pounds roam across the surface of the dry lake bed, leaving meandering tracks hundreds of yards long.

Researchers have investigated the phenomenon since the 1940s, but all they ever produced was speculation. No one ever actually saw the rocks move.

Until now.

The first ever observations, which came in December, are documented in a new paper published Wednesday in the scientific journal PLOS ONE by a research team that set out to solve the mystery, once and for all.

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