Soup and Moving Rocks.

If there's one topic I thought I'd NEVER blog about, it would be the relationship between soup and moving rocks. What do these two really have in common anyway? More than you'd think.

Yesterday my co-worker and I were discussing the moving rocks of Racetrack Playa in Death Valley California. There's an interesting article about the mysterious Moving Rocks I read. This article talks about the rocks, some as big as 700Lbs., and their ability to wander across the countryside. Kind of a walkabout if you may. There's several theories about how these boulders make their way across the countryside. (has anyone ever asked where they're going and why?) One of these theories is a wind driven ice sheet, another is that the clay swells when wet causing little hills that the rock slides down. I will offer another theory. A theory that includes soup. Not any soup, but my bowl of soup, the Cream of Chicken soup I had for lunch today (Seen above.)


I was in the lunch room at work, preparing my soup. (Mental note... buy a new can opener.) I followed the directions quite closely. I emptied my condensed soup into my oversized bowl. I then filled the empty can with hot water from the coffee machine's near boiling, hot water spigot. The can became unbearably hot and I plopped it down on the counter; a little water spilled.

I added a little small amount of water and stirred the soup. Added a little more and stirred again. Each time placing the blisteringly hot can back down on the counter. As I stirred my soup feverishly hoping to remove any lumps (it's a cream soup after all), a noticed the can was moving... Or was it my eyes playing tricks on me since I was stirring so feverishly?

I monitored the soup can. It was definitely moving. Much like the playa, the counter got extremely slippery when a small amount of water puddled on top of it. At first the soup appeared to be moving because the water in the can was sloshing. I let the can settle down, until there was no visible movement in the can. I started to stir my soup; and much like Bernie, from Weekend at Bernie's, as soon as I started stirring, the can(over half full of water) started moving again.

So... You see.... the minute vibrations from my stirring were transfering into the countertop and causing the can to move. This means....... I solved how the rocks move in death valley. (and I'm not suggesting that there's a big bowl of soup near by)

Here's my theory. The clay in the Playa gets wet during a rainfall or run off from the mountains. Being near the fault line, there's earth movement. Once the clay is wet, it's slippery, very slippery. All it takes is a little movement in the earth to cause the rocks to glide over an uber thin layer of water, just like my bowl of soup did. The tremors probably don't even need to be powerful enough to be felt.

That's my take on it... The moving rocks are like my soup. But my soup tastes better.