Help Solve the Mystery of the Sliding Rocks of Bonnie Claire Playa |
December 18, 2005 |
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Posted by Don Dunnington at December 18, 2005 07:35 PM |
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Enviro-Tech Services in Martinez, CA is looking for donors who can help supply weather station equipment to solve the mystery of how rocks slide across a dry lake bed.
Enviro-Tech is a distributor and renter of environmental products including water, air and soil monitoring/sampling equipment. A customer, Eric Garcia, is researching the sliding rocks of Bonnie Claire Playa in Nevada. Eric needs the weather station equipment to complete his thesis on this phenomenon.
Bonnie Claire is among the few dry lake beds in the southwest Basin & Range, where rocks, ranging from a few ounces to 150-pound boulders, have slid as far as 300 feet across the flat surface. Eric has a theory about how, short of an unlikely 180 mph wind storm, these rocks could slide across the lake bed.
For more on the story, see the Enviro-Tech blog article by Lauren Keyes. If you are able to help with the weather station, contact Lauren at 925.370.1541 or email Lauren@envirotechonline.com.
Comments
I believe I can explain what makes the rocks slide in the playa. Water is essential. Wind may help. But the force that moves them comes, I think, from the combined effect of two motions of planet Earth. If you're interested, let me know.
Arthur Earle
earle80@comcast.net
Posted by: Arthur Earle at February 12, 2008 06:09 PM
