The Book of THoTH Newsletter Issue 155
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ReverendChaos
Aug 18, 2009, 8:03:26 PM8/18/09
to The Book Of THoTH
Newsletter for the week of August 10th to August 16th
Hello to everyone! To all of our new subscribers out there, welcome
to the book of THoTH Newsletter and to our Book of THoTH Google
group. Thanks for taking the time to subscribe and thanks for joining
our group. We're glad that you've joined our mailing list and hope
that you enjoy what we have to offer in its pages.
As of this newsletter, we've have had 14 new members to join us at BoT
since last week. To those who've joined, we say thanks for taking the
time to be a part of the greatest paranormal site on the web! Due to
this new addition of members, we now stand at 8,175 members strong. A
huge thanks to each and everyone of you for helping to make this site
what it has become! We couldn't do it without you.
This Week at BoT:
The most prestigious Gold Star has been passed along again this week.
Last week's holder, Momma, has decided that the shining and spinning
award should go to none other than Daddio. To quote Momma, Daddio is
"a man of integrity, a strong sense of justice, and a great
conversationalist". Congratulations, Daddio! Wear it well and keep
it shining!
In the BoT LabCoat contest, we have two winners this week. As you
remember, minifang's question last week was "What, if any dinosaurs
survived the above extinction event? As a bonus what other marine
fish/reptiles survived unchanged since well before the extinction
event?". Juno54 got the bonus right by mentioning "crocodilians,
sharks and turtles". Momma got the main question right with her
answer of "the hadrosaur".
Momma and Juno haven't come up with a question yet, so keep your eyes
peeled in the "BoT LabCoat Quiz Part IX" thread if you'd like a chance
at winning the stylish BoT LabCoat.
http://www.book-of-thoth.com/ftopic-21115-90.html
This Week in the Forums:
Entity has a thread in the UFO section that tells about the UK
government releasing new UFO files. To join in on the topic and to
see the files for yourself, don't miss "New Released UFO Files From
the UK Government".
http://www.book-of-thoth.com/ftopict-21463.html
"Are You A Starseed II" is the continuation of an older thread in the
Aliens / Extraterrestrial section. The topic discusses just that and
has been bumped up recently with new input. To read the thread and to
contribute your thoughts, be sure to see Kira's thread.
http://www.book-of-thoth.com/ftopict-15086.html
Are there mermaids in Israel? That's the subject of Lancelot's topic
in the Animal Kingdom & Cryptozoology section. Due to recent reports
of one, one town is offering a million dollar reward to anyone who can
prove it's existence. To find out more, see "Mermaids in Israel".
http://www.book-of-thoth.com/ftopict-21456.html
"The Great Pacific Garbage Patch" is a thread by MediaMonkey that
informs us of this dirty spot in the Pacific. What can be done about
it? To read more on this subject, and to chime in with your views,
see the Nature & environment section for MediaMonkey's thread.
http://www.book-of-thoth.com/ftopict-21431.html
Lonecat has provided us with an excellent article on how DNA can
apparently organize itself. What kind of implications and promises
will this hold? To read more and to add to the discussion, see "DNA
'organises Itself' on silicone".
http://www.book-of-thoth.com/ftopict-21462.html
Random Site Feature of the Week:
If you haven't taken a look at our e-card page, head on over and take
a look at what we have. On this page, you can select from an
assortment of images and graphics to create your very own personalized
e-card that you can mail out to friends. This is a fun and easy to
use feature for sending out cards on any occasion.
http://www.book-of-thoth.com/e_cards/index.php
Strange Fact of the Week:
In parts of Denmark, tradition holds that you can pin a ghost to a
specific location by using a wooden post. The ghost will be freed,
however, if the post is pulled up.
Trivia Question of the Week:
What does Taos, New Mexico and Havana, Cuba have in common?
Answer to Last Weeks Trivia Question:
In the U.S. state of Indiana, what kind of phenomena is referred to as
"Gobbler's Rock"?
Named "Gobbler's Rock" because it was a turkey hunter who found it,
this phenomenon consists of a 400 pound rock that is perched in the
fork of a chestnut tree in Yellowwood State Forest. About five miles
away, there are more boulders wedged in the upper branches of two tall
sycamore trees that stand 100 yards apart. A local hiker says that
there are yet two more in another part of the same forest.
No one knows how these boulders found their way into the trees and
theories range from frat boys pulling pranks to tornadoes.
This Week in History:
August 16, 1829: The original Siamese twins, Eng and Chang, arrived
in Boston.
August 16, 1960: Cyprus, the third-largest island in the
Mediterranean, became an independent republic.
August 17, 1896: Prospectors found gold in Alaska, a discovery that
set off the Klondike gold rush.
August 17, 1978: The first successful trans-Atlantic balloon flight
landed outside of Paris.
August 18, 1587: Virginia Dare became the first child of English
parents born in North America.
August 18, 1920: When Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment to the
Constitution, the three-quarters of the states necessary was achieved
and American women got the right to vote.
August 19, 1812: The U.S. frigate Constitution, Old Ironsides,
defeated the British ship Guerriere during the War of 1812.
August 19, 1934: Germans voted to make Adolf Hitler Fuhrer.
August 20, 1977: The space probe Voyager 2 was launched. It continues
to explore to this day, and is now more than 7 billion miles from
Earth.
August 20, 1980: Italian Reinhold Messner made the first successful
solo ascent of Mount Everest and without oxygen.
August 21, 1680: Pueblo Indians drove out the Spanish and took
possession of Santa Fe, N.M.
August 21, 1911: The Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre museum in
France by an Italian waiter, Vicenzo Perruggia.
August 22, 1775: King George III proclaimed the American colonies to
be in open rebellion.
August 22, 1902: Theodore Roosevelt became the first United States
president to ride in an automobile.
This Week's Birthdays:
Menachem Begin (August 16, 1913) - Begin was the sixth prime minister
of the State of Israel. Before it's independence, he was a leader in
the Irgun and proclaimed a revolt in 1944 against British mandatory
government. His most significant achievement as prime minister was
signing a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979.
David Crockett (August 17, 1786) - Crockett was a 19th-century
American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier, and politician. He was
elected to represent Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives
twice and upon losing re-election the last time, disgusted at the
bureaucracy and waste, he was reported to have told his colleagues,
"... you may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas". He died in
Texas one year later at the Battle of the Alamo.
Meriwether Lewis (August 18, 1774) - Meriwether Lewis was an American
explorer, soldier, and public administrator. He was best known for
his role as the leader of the Corps of Discovery, whose mission was to
explore the territory of the Louisiana Purchase. It was during this
time that he, along with partner William Clark, led an expedition
across the Rocky Mountain to the Pacific in search of an all-water
route to the west coast.
Orville Wright (August 19, 1871) - Born in Dayton, Ohio, Orville was
the youngest of the Wright brothers. After having his interest
aroused by Otto Lilienthal's glider flights, he and his brother used
the facilities of their bicycle shop for the designing and
construction of their early airplane. On December 17, 1903, Orville
made the first controlled, sustained flight in an power driven
airplane which lasted 12 seconds. Although not the first to build and
fly and aircraft, the brothers were the first to invent and use
aircraft controls which made commercial flight practical.
Eero Saarinen (August 20, 1910) - Saarinen was a Finnish American
architect and product designer of the 20th century. He was famous for
varying his style according to the demands of the project. His
designs ranged from simple, sweeping, and arching structural curves to
machine-like rationalism.
Philip II (August 21, 1165) - Philip II Augustus was the King of
France from 1180 until his death in 1223. A member of the House of
Capet, he was the son of Louis VII and his third wife, Adela of
Champagne. He was one of the most successful medieval French monarchs
in expanding the royal demesne and the influence of the monarchy. He
broke up the Angevin Empire and reorganized the government, becoming
popular with the ordinary people because he checked the power of the
nobles.
Henri Cartier-Bresson (August 22, 1908) - Henri Cartier-Bresson was a
French photographer who was considered to be the "father of modern
photojournalism", an early adopter of the 35 mm film format, and the
master of candid photography. He helped to develop the "real life
reportage" or "street photography" style which influenced generations
of photographers and journalists that followed him.
In addition to the above, we also have quite a few BoT members with
birthdays this week. RoseRed's birthday is on August 17th, Zetanian
celebrates on the 18th, Sekhmet's is on the 20th, and WrinklyNinja has
his on the 21st. Happy Birthday to all of you! Here's to a great day
and a fantastic and fulfilling year a head!
Tech Tip of the Week:
When a program crashes on your computer, you'll get a dialog box that
asks you if you'd like to "Send an Error Report to Microsoft". Most
of us never even bother with reporting these errors, so we wish that
dialog box would just go away. This week, we'll tell you how to make
it do just that if you're using Window's XP.
One way to do this is right click on My Computer, select Properties,
and then go to the Advanced tab. At the bottom of this Properties
box, click on "Error Reporting". Once at the Error Reporting box,
select "Disable error reporting" and then click on OK. Click OK on
the Properties box and then reboot.
Another way to accomplish this same thing is to go to Control Panel,
open Administrative Tools, and then open Services. At the Services
window, scroll down and find "Error Reporting Service". Right click
on "Error Reporting Service" and select Properties. Click "Stop" to
stop the service and then click on the scroll down menu next to
"Startup type" to select "Disabled". Click Apply and then OK. Again,
reboot your computer to make sure that the changes take effect. This
method is probably better because it not only keeps the error
reporting boxes from popping up, but it completely disables that
particular service. This saves a few resources on your computer by
keeping an unnecessary program from running in the background.
You'll now be able to say "goodbye" to those annoying error reporting
boxes.
Unsolved Question of the Week:
This week's unsolved questions ponders a strange phenomena that takes
place in the United States' Death Valley. We're talking about the
famous Sailing Stones. Also referred to as sliding rocks or moving
rocks, it is a geological mystery that is found in Death Valley's
Racetrack Playa. These stones apparently move across the surface of
the desert with no animal or human intervention. Theories abound as
to how and why these stones do what they do, but so far no one has
been able to give any solid proof of these theories.
The stones themselves aren't much of a mystery. Most of them
originate from a nearby dolomite hillside, having broken off and found
their way to the desert floor, while others are igneous rocks from
other nearby slopes. Some are as small as a couple of inches in
diameter and some are large enough to weigh as much as a human. How
do stones this size move by themselves? No one knows exactly.
Has anyone ever seen the stones move? Not actually. No one has ever
witnessed a stone in the process of moving. But they do indeed move.
This is evident by the tracks that they make in the desert floor.
Some of which are hundreds of feet in length. The movement has also
been proven by geologist who have had the sole responsibility of
tracking these strange stones.
The movement was first noted by geologists who noticed the tracks
while mapping the bedrock of the area in 1948. Naturalists from the
National Park Service later wrote more detailed descriptions and Life
magazine even featured a set of photos from the Racetrack. This is
when the speculation about these moving rocks started. Various
explanations for their movement ranged from supernatural ones to
complex geophysical ones. Most theories point to strong winds that
push these stones when the ground is wet. Some feel that thin ice
sheets around the stones help in this process. Some even think that
magnetic anomalies under the ground are responsible for the movement.
A monitoring program was started in 1972 to try and determine a reason
for these rocks sliding around. As part of this program, thirty
stones with fresh tracks were labeled and stakes were used to mark
their locations. The stones were given names and any change in their
position was recorded over a seven year period. A "corral" was even
set up to try and determine if ice flow was responsible. The thought
was that if a sheet of ice around the stones was aiding in them
trailing along the desert floor, then a corral would surely stop any
movement. But it didn't. One of the stones barely missed a rebar
used as part of a corral as it moved 28 feet in the first winter of
the study. What is even more strange is that when two heavier stones
were later placed in the corral at the same time, one moved five years
later but it's companion stayed put. Investigators concluded that if
ice played a part in the movement, then the ice collars around the
stones must be very small and practically invisible to the naked eye.
During this study, ten stones moved in the first winter with Mary Ann
(stone A) covering the longest distance. By the end of the study, all
but two of the thirty stones had moved during the seven years. At 2.5
inches in diameter, Nancy (stone H) was the smallest to move and also
the one to move the longest distance. The largest stone to move
weighed in at 80 pounds.
There was one stone, Karen, a dolomite stone that weighed an estimated
700 pounds, that caused a bit of a problem. Not surprisingly, Karen
did not move during the monitoring period. It's thought that it's 570
foot straight track was caused by momentum that was gained from it's
initial fall onto wet ground. But sometime before May of 1994,
possibly during the wet winter of 1992 and 1993, it disappeared.
Removal of this large rock by artificial means was considered highly
unlikely due to the lack of associated damage that a necessary winch
or truck would have caused. Even more strange is that a possible
sighting of Karen that was made in 1994 a half mile from the playa
that it was originally at.
Physicists and other researchers have studied the stones since then.
Many have concluded that they do move in ice flows, as shown by swaths
of lineated areas that could only have been created by moving sheets
of thin ice. Some also found that the winds blowing on the surface of
the playa could be responsible due to the boundary layers being as low
as 2 inches. This means that stones as small as a few inches high can
receive the full force of winds and gusts, some of which can reach
90mph in winter storms. It's said that such strong gusts are the
initiating force while sustained winds keep the stones moving,
possibly as fast as a moderate run by a human.
There's one thing wrong this theory though. How does wind move one
stone but not another one right next to it? And how do straight line
winds explain the sometimes zig-zag and overlapping patterns in the
tracks of some rocks? What about them being overturned? Yes, many
stones have even shown signs of turning over, evident by the different
size tracks in the stones' wake. And what about the stones that move
during the dry season when no ice or wet ground is possible?
Until these questions are answered, the Sailing Stones of Racetrack
Playa, Death Valley will continue to remain another one of those
questions that we've yet to find an answer to.
Quote of the Week:
"The smaller the mind the greater the conceit."
- Aesop
That concludes this week's edition of the BoT newsletter. We hope
that you've enjoyed it, found it a nice change in your inbox, and are
looking forward to receiving the next one. As always, we should have
lots more waiting in store for you.
Until next time, keep your eyes to the skies and the door to your mind
unlocked. You never know who might drop by for a visit.
Hello to everyone! To all of our new subscribers out there, welcome
to the book of THoTH Newsletter and to our Book of THoTH Google
group. Thanks for taking the time to subscribe and thanks for joining
our group. We're glad that you've joined our mailing list and hope
that you enjoy what we have to offer in its pages.
As of this newsletter, we've have had 14 new members to join us at BoT
since last week. To those who've joined, we say thanks for taking the
time to be a part of the greatest paranormal site on the web! Due to
this new addition of members, we now stand at 8,175 members strong. A
huge thanks to each and everyone of you for helping to make this site
what it has become! We couldn't do it without you.
This Week at BoT:
The most prestigious Gold Star has been passed along again this week.
Last week's holder, Momma, has decided that the shining and spinning
award should go to none other than Daddio. To quote Momma, Daddio is
"a man of integrity, a strong sense of justice, and a great
conversationalist". Congratulations, Daddio! Wear it well and keep
it shining!
In the BoT LabCoat contest, we have two winners this week. As you
remember, minifang's question last week was "What, if any dinosaurs
survived the above extinction event? As a bonus what other marine
fish/reptiles survived unchanged since well before the extinction
event?". Juno54 got the bonus right by mentioning "crocodilians,
sharks and turtles". Momma got the main question right with her
answer of "the hadrosaur".
Momma and Juno haven't come up with a question yet, so keep your eyes
peeled in the "BoT LabCoat Quiz Part IX" thread if you'd like a chance
at winning the stylish BoT LabCoat.
http://www.book-of-thoth.com/ftopic-21115-90.html
This Week in the Forums:
Entity has a thread in the UFO section that tells about the UK
government releasing new UFO files. To join in on the topic and to
see the files for yourself, don't miss "New Released UFO Files From
the UK Government".
http://www.book-of-thoth.com/ftopict-21463.html
"Are You A Starseed II" is the continuation of an older thread in the
Aliens / Extraterrestrial section. The topic discusses just that and
has been bumped up recently with new input. To read the thread and to
contribute your thoughts, be sure to see Kira's thread.
http://www.book-of-thoth.com/ftopict-15086.html
Are there mermaids in Israel? That's the subject of Lancelot's topic
in the Animal Kingdom & Cryptozoology section. Due to recent reports
of one, one town is offering a million dollar reward to anyone who can
prove it's existence. To find out more, see "Mermaids in Israel".
http://www.book-of-thoth.com/ftopict-21456.html
"The Great Pacific Garbage Patch" is a thread by MediaMonkey that
informs us of this dirty spot in the Pacific. What can be done about
it? To read more on this subject, and to chime in with your views,
see the Nature & environment section for MediaMonkey's thread.
http://www.book-of-thoth.com/ftopict-21431.html
Lonecat has provided us with an excellent article on how DNA can
apparently organize itself. What kind of implications and promises
will this hold? To read more and to add to the discussion, see "DNA
'organises Itself' on silicone".
http://www.book-of-thoth.com/ftopict-21462.html
Random Site Feature of the Week:
If you haven't taken a look at our e-card page, head on over and take
a look at what we have. On this page, you can select from an
assortment of images and graphics to create your very own personalized
e-card that you can mail out to friends. This is a fun and easy to
use feature for sending out cards on any occasion.
http://www.book-of-thoth.com/e_cards/index.php
Strange Fact of the Week:
In parts of Denmark, tradition holds that you can pin a ghost to a
specific location by using a wooden post. The ghost will be freed,
however, if the post is pulled up.
Trivia Question of the Week:
What does Taos, New Mexico and Havana, Cuba have in common?
Answer to Last Weeks Trivia Question:
In the U.S. state of Indiana, what kind of phenomena is referred to as
"Gobbler's Rock"?
Named "Gobbler's Rock" because it was a turkey hunter who found it,
this phenomenon consists of a 400 pound rock that is perched in the
fork of a chestnut tree in Yellowwood State Forest. About five miles
away, there are more boulders wedged in the upper branches of two tall
sycamore trees that stand 100 yards apart. A local hiker says that
there are yet two more in another part of the same forest.
No one knows how these boulders found their way into the trees and
theories range from frat boys pulling pranks to tornadoes.
This Week in History:
August 16, 1829: The original Siamese twins, Eng and Chang, arrived
in Boston.
August 16, 1960: Cyprus, the third-largest island in the
Mediterranean, became an independent republic.
August 17, 1896: Prospectors found gold in Alaska, a discovery that
set off the Klondike gold rush.
August 17, 1978: The first successful trans-Atlantic balloon flight
landed outside of Paris.
August 18, 1587: Virginia Dare became the first child of English
parents born in North America.
August 18, 1920: When Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment to the
Constitution, the three-quarters of the states necessary was achieved
and American women got the right to vote.
August 19, 1812: The U.S. frigate Constitution, Old Ironsides,
defeated the British ship Guerriere during the War of 1812.
August 19, 1934: Germans voted to make Adolf Hitler Fuhrer.
August 20, 1977: The space probe Voyager 2 was launched. It continues
to explore to this day, and is now more than 7 billion miles from
Earth.
August 20, 1980: Italian Reinhold Messner made the first successful
solo ascent of Mount Everest and without oxygen.
August 21, 1680: Pueblo Indians drove out the Spanish and took
possession of Santa Fe, N.M.
August 21, 1911: The Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre museum in
France by an Italian waiter, Vicenzo Perruggia.
August 22, 1775: King George III proclaimed the American colonies to
be in open rebellion.
August 22, 1902: Theodore Roosevelt became the first United States
president to ride in an automobile.
This Week's Birthdays:
Menachem Begin (August 16, 1913) - Begin was the sixth prime minister
of the State of Israel. Before it's independence, he was a leader in
the Irgun and proclaimed a revolt in 1944 against British mandatory
government. His most significant achievement as prime minister was
signing a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979.
David Crockett (August 17, 1786) - Crockett was a 19th-century
American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier, and politician. He was
elected to represent Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives
twice and upon losing re-election the last time, disgusted at the
bureaucracy and waste, he was reported to have told his colleagues,
"... you may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas". He died in
Texas one year later at the Battle of the Alamo.
Meriwether Lewis (August 18, 1774) - Meriwether Lewis was an American
explorer, soldier, and public administrator. He was best known for
his role as the leader of the Corps of Discovery, whose mission was to
explore the territory of the Louisiana Purchase. It was during this
time that he, along with partner William Clark, led an expedition
across the Rocky Mountain to the Pacific in search of an all-water
route to the west coast.
Orville Wright (August 19, 1871) - Born in Dayton, Ohio, Orville was
the youngest of the Wright brothers. After having his interest
aroused by Otto Lilienthal's glider flights, he and his brother used
the facilities of their bicycle shop for the designing and
construction of their early airplane. On December 17, 1903, Orville
made the first controlled, sustained flight in an power driven
airplane which lasted 12 seconds. Although not the first to build and
fly and aircraft, the brothers were the first to invent and use
aircraft controls which made commercial flight practical.
Eero Saarinen (August 20, 1910) - Saarinen was a Finnish American
architect and product designer of the 20th century. He was famous for
varying his style according to the demands of the project. His
designs ranged from simple, sweeping, and arching structural curves to
machine-like rationalism.
Philip II (August 21, 1165) - Philip II Augustus was the King of
France from 1180 until his death in 1223. A member of the House of
Capet, he was the son of Louis VII and his third wife, Adela of
Champagne. He was one of the most successful medieval French monarchs
in expanding the royal demesne and the influence of the monarchy. He
broke up the Angevin Empire and reorganized the government, becoming
popular with the ordinary people because he checked the power of the
nobles.
Henri Cartier-Bresson (August 22, 1908) - Henri Cartier-Bresson was a
French photographer who was considered to be the "father of modern
photojournalism", an early adopter of the 35 mm film format, and the
master of candid photography. He helped to develop the "real life
reportage" or "street photography" style which influenced generations
of photographers and journalists that followed him.
In addition to the above, we also have quite a few BoT members with
birthdays this week. RoseRed's birthday is on August 17th, Zetanian
celebrates on the 18th, Sekhmet's is on the 20th, and WrinklyNinja has
his on the 21st. Happy Birthday to all of you! Here's to a great day
and a fantastic and fulfilling year a head!
Tech Tip of the Week:
When a program crashes on your computer, you'll get a dialog box that
asks you if you'd like to "Send an Error Report to Microsoft". Most
of us never even bother with reporting these errors, so we wish that
dialog box would just go away. This week, we'll tell you how to make
it do just that if you're using Window's XP.
One way to do this is right click on My Computer, select Properties,
and then go to the Advanced tab. At the bottom of this Properties
box, click on "Error Reporting". Once at the Error Reporting box,
select "Disable error reporting" and then click on OK. Click OK on
the Properties box and then reboot.
Another way to accomplish this same thing is to go to Control Panel,
open Administrative Tools, and then open Services. At the Services
window, scroll down and find "Error Reporting Service". Right click
on "Error Reporting Service" and select Properties. Click "Stop" to
stop the service and then click on the scroll down menu next to
"Startup type" to select "Disabled". Click Apply and then OK. Again,
reboot your computer to make sure that the changes take effect. This
method is probably better because it not only keeps the error
reporting boxes from popping up, but it completely disables that
particular service. This saves a few resources on your computer by
keeping an unnecessary program from running in the background.
You'll now be able to say "goodbye" to those annoying error reporting
boxes.
Unsolved Question of the Week:
This week's unsolved questions ponders a strange phenomena that takes
place in the United States' Death Valley. We're talking about the
famous Sailing Stones. Also referred to as sliding rocks or moving
rocks, it is a geological mystery that is found in Death Valley's
Racetrack Playa. These stones apparently move across the surface of
the desert with no animal or human intervention. Theories abound as
to how and why these stones do what they do, but so far no one has
been able to give any solid proof of these theories.
The stones themselves aren't much of a mystery. Most of them
originate from a nearby dolomite hillside, having broken off and found
their way to the desert floor, while others are igneous rocks from
other nearby slopes. Some are as small as a couple of inches in
diameter and some are large enough to weigh as much as a human. How
do stones this size move by themselves? No one knows exactly.
Has anyone ever seen the stones move? Not actually. No one has ever
witnessed a stone in the process of moving. But they do indeed move.
This is evident by the tracks that they make in the desert floor.
Some of which are hundreds of feet in length. The movement has also
been proven by geologist who have had the sole responsibility of
tracking these strange stones.
The movement was first noted by geologists who noticed the tracks
while mapping the bedrock of the area in 1948. Naturalists from the
National Park Service later wrote more detailed descriptions and Life
magazine even featured a set of photos from the Racetrack. This is
when the speculation about these moving rocks started. Various
explanations for their movement ranged from supernatural ones to
complex geophysical ones. Most theories point to strong winds that
push these stones when the ground is wet. Some feel that thin ice
sheets around the stones help in this process. Some even think that
magnetic anomalies under the ground are responsible for the movement.
A monitoring program was started in 1972 to try and determine a reason
for these rocks sliding around. As part of this program, thirty
stones with fresh tracks were labeled and stakes were used to mark
their locations. The stones were given names and any change in their
position was recorded over a seven year period. A "corral" was even
set up to try and determine if ice flow was responsible. The thought
was that if a sheet of ice around the stones was aiding in them
trailing along the desert floor, then a corral would surely stop any
movement. But it didn't. One of the stones barely missed a rebar
used as part of a corral as it moved 28 feet in the first winter of
the study. What is even more strange is that when two heavier stones
were later placed in the corral at the same time, one moved five years
later but it's companion stayed put. Investigators concluded that if
ice played a part in the movement, then the ice collars around the
stones must be very small and practically invisible to the naked eye.
During this study, ten stones moved in the first winter with Mary Ann
(stone A) covering the longest distance. By the end of the study, all
but two of the thirty stones had moved during the seven years. At 2.5
inches in diameter, Nancy (stone H) was the smallest to move and also
the one to move the longest distance. The largest stone to move
weighed in at 80 pounds.
There was one stone, Karen, a dolomite stone that weighed an estimated
700 pounds, that caused a bit of a problem. Not surprisingly, Karen
did not move during the monitoring period. It's thought that it's 570
foot straight track was caused by momentum that was gained from it's
initial fall onto wet ground. But sometime before May of 1994,
possibly during the wet winter of 1992 and 1993, it disappeared.
Removal of this large rock by artificial means was considered highly
unlikely due to the lack of associated damage that a necessary winch
or truck would have caused. Even more strange is that a possible
sighting of Karen that was made in 1994 a half mile from the playa
that it was originally at.
Physicists and other researchers have studied the stones since then.
Many have concluded that they do move in ice flows, as shown by swaths
of lineated areas that could only have been created by moving sheets
of thin ice. Some also found that the winds blowing on the surface of
the playa could be responsible due to the boundary layers being as low
as 2 inches. This means that stones as small as a few inches high can
receive the full force of winds and gusts, some of which can reach
90mph in winter storms. It's said that such strong gusts are the
initiating force while sustained winds keep the stones moving,
possibly as fast as a moderate run by a human.
There's one thing wrong this theory though. How does wind move one
stone but not another one right next to it? And how do straight line
winds explain the sometimes zig-zag and overlapping patterns in the
tracks of some rocks? What about them being overturned? Yes, many
stones have even shown signs of turning over, evident by the different
size tracks in the stones' wake. And what about the stones that move
during the dry season when no ice or wet ground is possible?
Until these questions are answered, the Sailing Stones of Racetrack
Playa, Death Valley will continue to remain another one of those
questions that we've yet to find an answer to.
Quote of the Week:
"The smaller the mind the greater the conceit."
- Aesop
That concludes this week's edition of the BoT newsletter. We hope
that you've enjoyed it, found it a nice change in your inbox, and are
looking forward to receiving the next one. As always, we should have
lots more waiting in store for you.
Until next time, keep your eyes to the skies and the door to your mind
unlocked. You never know who might drop by for a visit.
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