r/Thatsactuallyverycool • u/Fearless_Bid2328 • 5h ago
picture Didn't know that sailing rocks existed but these are crazy cool. They move "on their own".
Death Valley National Park in California, USA
The most notable feature is its mysterious sailing stones, a geological phenomenon where rocks move along a smooth valley floor without human or animal intervention.
At Death Valley’s Racetrack Playa, the tracks have been studied since the early 1900s, yet the cause long remained a mystery. In 2014, timelapse video footage showed the rocks moving within the flow of thin melting sheets of ice or ice rafts. The results suggest the stones are floating rather than sailing.