LOl. Always fun to read your posts. Allison
From: "Rick Bates, WA6NHC" <HappyMoosePhoto@gmail.com>
To: "geology2@yahoogroups.com" <geology2@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2014 8:02 PM
Subject: Re: [Geology2] Re: More on Racetrack Playa
It's been another long day, but enjoyed the geology (at least the wonderful views) at Bryce and Kolob Canyons. At Bryce, the clouds parted, the sun appeared, the hoodoos glowed, the angels sang (wait, that's one of the dogs howling again), it was awesome, again. Red rock with snow, pretty neat to see.
Cedar Breaks road is still closed, being that is starts above 9600' elevation. The three feet plus of standing snow at the locked gate convinced me to go no further. It's above the 10k' mark and unless they plow the road, it may take another month or so to melt (but it was 48 deg at the gate).
Would someone please turn down the wind? We've had way too much and tomorrow is a travel day which makes it risky for moving my rig (pick up and 34' fifth wheel). (30-40 MPH with higher gusts ALL DAY AGAIN, from Zion to Bryce [91xx' elevation, a lovely 45F in the sun but the fracking WIND makes it bitter cold) to Kolob and back to Zion. I spent a lifetime on the Pac Coast and I'm TIRED of the WIND!!!
Besides it raises all kinds of dust, which causes allergic issues, blocks the light for clear photos and generally makes this fairly pristine world look like SoCal in the 70's. Ok, I'm whining, I'll move on.
I'll try to be short in comment. In Lin-speak "ah'm plain tuckered an meh dogz is a barkin".
1) we know where the rocks are NOW and can backtrace the path they took to get there (it's the path itself). Based on the current position, looking at the paths, they aren't moving in the same direction. I cannot show from a couple hour visit that they actually move at the same time or rate. That may be a missing key component.
2) I've completely ruled out wind as the sole component, as previously discussed. Because of ground effect, local distortions and hills shielding the playa; it's near impossible that the wind is the SOLE cause. The local distortion would account for the varied directions, but there simply isn't enough energy to move the mass of the rocks solely from wind. Even less chance when that wind energy is forced to change direction (give up delta V).
3) The playa where one finds the rocks is about 3/4 mile across, perhaps less (judged by walking speed, about a 15 minute reasonable paced walk, not an actual measurement).
Small reflectors on each rock (three sides per rock) with multiple angled laser measurements, every XX minutes, should show change in direction, rate and new location. What else is needed would be a means to measure the other events at the same time to search for the confluence: moisture in the playa at several levels; air temp, humidity, wind speed and direction; storms, if any; human activity (folks think it's cute to move the rocks, then others can't enjoy the mystery; or more often, then plod through the playa when it's wet [signs warn not to do this] or other stupid human tricks); earthquake, volcanic or other natural activity plus anything else that can be thrown into the mix.
I'd suspect that, as always, ONE factor not considered will be the key, making everything clear. Uh, ma'am, I hate to bother you... just one more question if you don't mind...
At least I don't smoke stogies...
Ah'm gon'tuh baid...
Rick, WA6NHC
Rick, WA6NHC
iPad = small keypad = typos = sorry ;-)
There are a couple things related to this that I've been wondering about. First, how can we tell whether the rocks were moving in different directions at the same instant in time since we don't know if they all came to rest at the same time? Some might have started out earlier than others and maybe some stopped later, (and maybe they moved at different rates?) so measuring back from their current positions doesn't necessarily tell how they were all moving at any instant.The other thing is the idea that the wind moves as a uniform mass across the lake bed in one direction. I don't know anything about this particular environment but wind direction doesn't normally follow a laminar flow pattern and can show a lot of local variability on the small scale as well as regionally. Saw an interesting show a while back about how a military sniper has a spotter who determines the wind directions along the path between the rifleman and the target in order to adjust the aim. In that case there were two or three different wind directions near the ground over a path of a mile.Clay
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