Sailing stones

Have you ever seen rocks that move all by themselves? These rocks are called sailing stones, and they move along the ground, leaving a trail behind them. It's like they are playing a game of follow the leader, but with no one around to lead them!

Sailing stones are found in a place called Racetrack Playa, which is located in a desert in California. The reason these rocks move on their own is because of something called wind and water erosion.

You see, when it rains in this desert, water collects on the ground, and it makes a thin layer of mud. When the sun comes out and it gets hot again, the mud dries and cracks into a bunch of little pieces. The wind then carries these tiny pieces of mud and moves the rocks along with it.

The rocks are really heavy, so they can't be blown around easily, but when the wind is strong enough and combined with a slippery ground, the rocks slowly start to move. Kind of like how you would push something with your feet, but in this case, it's wind that's doing the pushing!

Scientists still don't fully understand how and why these rocks move, but they think it has to do with different wind speeds in certain parts of the desert, which can create a kind of "sail" effect on the rock that helps it move.

So, the next time you see a sailing stone, you can tell your friends that you know why it moves all by itself!