神秘的死亡之谷风帆石

你可曾见过会走路的石头?美国加州死亡谷有一种奇特的现象：石头会在荒滩沙漠上神秘地“自行移动”，并在地面上留下行走的痕迹。这一神秘现象在科学界引发的讨论已逾数十年。它们又是怎么移动的呢?真的是超自然力量的驱使吗?

A baffling phenomenon of nature or a paranormal[1] display of supernatural existence or is it an alien intervention? Questions still remain unanswered while experts are still nailing down on what could be the accurate reason behind stones of Death Valley that slide by themselves, without the interference of humans or animals.[2] In the southwest of the United States of America, lies this mysterious valley—popular as the hottest and driest location in North America. This lowest lying point of the continent is a deserted floor located in the Inyo Country by the border of California and Nevada, and consists of a dry lakebed named “Racetrack Playa[3]” which is proved to have the motion of rocks every two or three years.

What are Sailing Stones?

“Sailing Stones” of Death Valley—named from their distinctive and mysterious feature are in a count of hundreds scattered allover the Racetrack Playa from the size of a pebble to as large as huge boulders.[4] The playa which is nothing but a flat bed of scorched mud observes the sailing of such stones on its broken surface of flat octagons and pentagons.[5] While the stones having rough bottoms tend to form smooth straight tracks, stones with smoother bottom are found wandering in an unorganized pattern. Stones also tend to turn over during this process leading all the way to another track.

Like the size and shape of sailing stones, its component also varies all over the Racetrack Playa. In the southern end of the region, they’re found to be made of dark dolomite, while the stones from the adjacent slopes consist more of tan-colored igneous rock.[6] From as small as 10 feet to as long as 100 feet, the tracks formed by these sailing stones are usually 2.5 cms deep and 4-12 inches wide, consisting of silt and clay sediments and last usually for three to four years.

The Science of Sailing Stones

Even though this geological phenomenon is a mystery and still a subject under research, various speculations have been made on the exact reason behind the sailing of the stones.

Some researchers believe a combination of natural events cause these stones to “sail”. This area of Death Valley can get very frigid in the winter nights, causing a layer of ice to form on the baked smooth soil. The combination of the ice-coated ground and fierce winds, the rocks are gently pushed across the surface. The winds are indeed fierce, as they have been known to clock up[7] to 90 mph during the winter months.

Other researchers question this theory[8]. Some point the conditions have to be just right for these stones to move, perhaps occurring once every one to three years. They claim some other unknown factor is probably in play.

To add more to this strange phenomenon, these sailing stones don’t follow a specific path that could be predicted when ice and wind are present. Some stones that are physically near each other may start out sailing in a parallel direction, but then one would stop while the other one continues. Some have started sailing in a parallel direction, but then suddenly one would turn left or right and continue on in that direction. There are some stones that have reversed course while others have continued on in a straight path. To make matters even more complicated, some stones have completely turned over while continuing to sail across the dry lake bed.

There are also researchers believe that the movement of stones in the desert are under the influence of Milky Way, means our galaxy. The position of stars create a magnetic structure in such a way which make the stones to slide in valley, just like the tides in oceans which are sometimes influenced by the gravitation pull[9] of the moon.

Till date these mysterious stones and their movement remains un-filmed and unobserved by human eyes, but the various speculations made by experts keep us driving towards this mystical happening of nature, wondering how this could be possible.

它究竟是一个令人困惑的自然现象，还是一个超自然异象的展现?亦或是外星人干预的结果?这些问题至今仍无定论。专家们也仍在致力于探究死亡谷那些石头在没有人类或动物干预的情况下自行漂移的确切原因。神秘的死亡谷位于美国西南部，那里以是北美最为炎热干燥之处而广为人知。这块人际罕至的荒原也是北美大陆海拔的最低点，它位于加利福尼亚州和内华达州交界处的因约县，是一块名为“跑道干湖”的干涸湖床，这里每隔两三年就会被证实有岩石移动的痕迹。

何谓风帆石?

死亡谷的“风帆石”因其神秘和独特而得名。数以百计的风帆石散落在跑道干湖上，小者有如鹅卵石，大者堪比巨砾。这座干荒盆地除了由干焦的泥土组成的平坦湖床之外一无所有，湖床表面已龟裂成单调五角形和八角形，经常会出现风帆石移动的痕迹。那些底部凹凸不平的石头身后通常会留下笔直流畅的痕迹，而那些底部较为平滑的石头的轨迹却呈现蜿蜒曲折的不规则曲线状。风帆石滑动过程中还会因翻滚而变换轨道。

正像风帆石的大小、形状不一，它们的组成物也在跑道干湖的各处各不相同。该区域南端的石头是暗色的白云石，而附近斜坡上的石头则多是棕褐色的火成岩。这些风帆石身后的行迹由淤泥和土壤沉淀物组成，短则10英尺，长者可达100英尺，通常深约2.5厘米，宽约4至12英寸，而且一般会保留三到四年。

风帆石里的科学

尽管这一地质现象仍是未解之谜，科学家们也仍在努力探究，但关于这些石头能自己滑动的确切原因，人们已有多种猜测。

一些研究人员认为风帆石的“航行”是多种自然因素综合作用的结果。冬季的夜晚，死亡谷地区会变得奇寒无比，湖床夏日烤焦的平坦底土上会结一层冰。这层覆冰的土壤与凛冽的寒风共同作用，推动风帆石在地面上缓缓移动。这里的风势极猛，冬天时，风速可达每小时90英里。

不过，也有研究人士对这一观点提出质疑。有人指出，(上述推论所描述的)风帆石位移的发生，只有在所有条件都恰巧具备的情况下才会发生，而这种适宜的条件每一到三年才会出现一次。(故而)他们认为还有一些未知的因素或许在起作用。

令这一奇怪现象更具神秘色彩的是，风帆石的移动并非遵循特定的轨迹，而如果按上述冰层和风的条件都具备的情况下，那么石头运动的行迹应该是可以预测的。一些相互距离较近的石头开始移动时，其行进方向可能是平行的，接着一块石头停了下来，另一块石头却仍会继续移动。有时，在平行的方向上，其中的一块石头可能突然左转或右转，并在新的方向上继续前行。有些石头移动过程中可能会倒转往回移动，另一些则会继续保持直线移动。令情况更为复杂的是，有些石头会在干涸的湖面上完全翻了个儿地移动。

另外有研究者认为，风帆石能在沙漠中移动是由于银河，也就是我们的银河系的影响。恒星的位置会形成一定的磁场结构，使得这些石头在山谷中滑行，一如海中的潮汐有时会受到月球引力作用的影响那样。

迄今为止，人类尚未拍摄到或目睹过这些神秘石头的“行走”，然而专家们的各种猜想却一直吸引着我们去关注这一自然奇观，令我们不禁感叹：真是无奇不有!