Death Valley National Park in Nevada is one of the hottest and driest places on Earth. There, you'll also find moving rocks also known as sailing stones, that have mystified scientists until now.

Death Valley National Park in Nevada is one of the hottest and driest places on Earth.

There, you'll also find moving rocks also known as sailing stones, that have mystified scientists until now.
In the area of the park known as Racetrack Playa, large rocks move across the flat landscape, leaving a dusty trail behind them.

Theories about the moving rocks have ranged from magnetic fields to strong winds.

But in December of 2013, a couple of researchers documented the first definitive explanation for the movement of the rocks as part of their Slithering Stones Research Initiative. The findings were published in PLoS One journal this week.

Paleobiologist Richard Norris from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, along with his cousin, research engineer James Norris recruited the help of friends and relatives to gain access to the remote area of the park over the course of two years.

They discovered that every so often, a tiny amount of rain freezes before evaporating.

The sun then melts the ice, and when wind blows hard enough the pieces of ice break into floes, which then move across the shallow water.

When the ice hits the rocks, it makes them move at speeds of around 15 feet per minute.