ColdProvenance
The Sliding Rocks of Death Valley
Episode 03 · Racetrack Playa ·
all sources
For a century, the sailing stones of Death Valley’s
Racetrack Playa left long trails across the mud — and no one ever saw one
move. This is how it was finally worked out, and the part of it that
still isn’t.
Narration is a synthesized voice; the music and sound
design are produced. Every clip, photo, figure and claim is real and
sourced.
Sources
- Norris RD, Norris JM, Lorenz RD, Ray J, Jackson B (2014). Sliding Rocks on Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park: First Observation of Rocks in Motion. PLoS ONE 9(8): e105948. CC BY 4.0 — the GPS data, figures and time-lapse frames
- Sharp RP & Carey DL (1976). Sliding Stones, Racetrack Playa, California. GSA Bulletin 87(12) — rebuilt as our own diagram
- McAllister & Agnew 1948 · Stanley 1955 · Reid et al. 1995 — referenced
- NASA grants NNX07AL32G, NNX12AI04G (to Lorenz & Jackson)
- NPS Death Valley National Park; Wikipedia “Racetrack Playa”, cross-checked against the paper
- 2014 coverage, name + headline only: PLOS ONE, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, ABC News, EarthSky
Footage & stills
- Death Valley National Park b-roll — courtesy of the U.S. National Park Service Public domain
- Racetrack Playa fieldwork photographs — NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (2010 LPSA field trip), via Wikimedia Commons Public domain — used representationally
- Racetrack Playa stills via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — U.S. National Park Service (incl. Kurt Moses; NPS Natural Resources); NASA GSFC; Carol M. Highsmith Archive / Library of Congress (LCCN 2013631022)
- Racetrack Playa stills — CC BY 2.0 John Fowler
- Racetrack Playa stills — CC BY 3.0 Jason Hickey; Annette Teng
- Racetrack Playa stills — CC BY 1.0 Richard D. Norris, James M. Norris, Ralph D. Lorenz, Jib Ray, Brian Jackson
- Racetrack Playa stills — CC BY-SA 3.0 Daniel Mayer; Kletetschka. CC BY-SA 4.0 David Sava. (Shared here under the same licence.)
- Racetrack Playa still — CC0 Romain Guy
- Representational stock footage — Pexels (Pexels License). Stand-in footage is labelled on screen.
- Dust devil — “Whirlwind, Serengeti plains, Tanzania” — Noel Feáns, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Mars — “Mars Rover’s Mastcam View of Possible Mud Cracks”, NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS (PIA21262) Public domain
- Titan — “Despeckling Ligea Mare”, NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI (PIA19052) Public domain
- Elevation — USGS 3DEP / NASA SRTM via AWS Terrain Tiles Public domain
- Playa outline — © OpenStreetMap contributors ODbL
- Maps, diagrams and the rock-motion animation built by ColdProvenance from the above. Music & sound design produced for ColdProvenance.