Article: Nature's rolling stones: the sliding rocks in Death Valley National Park's Racetrack Playa have long defied logic, puzzled scientists, and dazzled park visitors.(Park Mysteries)

One of the hottest places on the surface of the Earth is home to one of its most puzzling geological mysteries.

The sliding rocks, from pebbles to 500 pound boulders, of Death Valley National Park's Racetrack Playa have long puzzled scientists and park visitors. The rocks seem to defy nature, moving hundreds of yards at a time, sometimes uphill. Some slide in straight lines or circles, others zig and zag. They leave behind long, though erratic, grooves in the flat basin that raise more questions than they answer. The most obvious: What makes these amazing rocks move?

Although they were first reported about 90 years ago and studied extensively for ...

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