The eerie prints appear only after it rains.
Archaeologists recently stumbled upon a set of mysterious"ghost footprints" in the salt flats of a Utah desert. These unusual ancient tracks get their eerie name not because they are from an ethereal realm, but due to their earthly composition: They become visible only after it rains and the footprints fill with moisture and become darker in color, before disappearing again after they dry out in the sun.
The discovery of so many ancient footprints is a"once-in-a-lifetime discovery," Anya Kitterman, the cultural resource manager at Hill Air Force Base who oversaw the archaeological work, said in a statement ."We found so much more than we bargained for." People appear to have been walking in shallow water, with the sand rapidly infilling their print behind them, much as you might experience on a beach," lead researcher Daron Duke, an archaeologist with Far Western Anthropological Research Group, a private firm that specializes in cultural resources management, said in the statement."But under the sand was a layer of mud that kept the print intact after infilling.
The researchers involved with the new finding have collected some of the footprints in order to determine their exact age. Using radiocarbon dating, researchers hope to be able to analyze small pieces of organic material that could have been trapped in the sediment by the foot of whoever left the prints, according to the statement.
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