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Lightmark No.115, The Racetrak Playa, Death Valley, California, Light Painting, Night Photography.
  Lightmark No.115 The Racetrack Playa, Death Valley, California  
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The Racetrack, is a scenic dry lake feature with "sailing stones" that leave linear "racetrack" imprints. It is located above the northwestern side of Death Valley.

During periods of heavy rain, water washes down from the mountains onto the playa, forming a shallow, short-lived endorheic lake. Under the hot desert sun the thin veneer of water quickly evaporates leaving behind a surface layer of soft slick mud. As the mud dries it shrinks and cracks into a mosaic pattern of interlocking polygons.

The sailing stones are a geological phenomenon found in the Racetrack. The stones slowly move across the surface of the playa, leaving a track as they go, without human or animal intervention. They have never been seen or filmed in motion. Racetrack stones only move once every two or three years and most tracks last for three or four years.

The stones are most likely moved by strong winter winds, reaching 90 mph, once it has rained enough to fill the playa with just enough water to make the clay slippery. The prevailing southwest winds across Racetrack playa blow to northeast. Most of the rock trails are parallel to this direction, lending support to this hypothesis.

 

 
 
       
    This article uses material from the Wikipedia article which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0  
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  Cenci and Jens About Cenci Goepel and Jens Warnecke N 36°40'32.08 W 117°33'47.39
 

 

Cenci Goepel and Jens Warnecke travel around
the world, turning night into day.

With flashlights and torches, the photographers
set their Lightpaintings in unusual landscapes.
The photographs have been pubished in major
international magazines and books.

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© cenci goepel + jens warnecke