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Located in Upper Black Eddy in Pennsylvania, Ringing Rocks Park, officially known as Bridgeton Boulder Field, is exactly what the name implies. After a walk through the woods, visitors come across a large boulder field to climb and explore. Bring a hammer along and you can hear the rocks ring! Known as sonorous or lithophonic rocks, when struck with a hammer, they ring like a bell. But not all rocks ring at the same tone! So why do the rocks ring? Scientists aren't sure, but there are a lot of hypotheses. Although the exact mechanism by which the rocks ring remains unknown, it may have something to do with the freeze-thaw cycle that helped created the boulder field in the first place. The ringing sound is metallic, which has led scientists to hypothesize that the higher iron content in the rocks is what causes the ringing ability. Although the iron content is higher than normal for your average igneous rock, the numbers are still well within normal range for basalt, for example, which does not ring. Even more interesting, igneous rocks are volcanic in origin, but Pennsylvania doesn't have any volcanoes (that we know of). How the rocks got there, why they ring...it's still a scientific mystery. The only published experiment on the ringing rocks is from the 1960's where it was found that stress within the rocks themselves is what may cause the ringing. In this experiment, the Rutgers professor found that the boulders toward the center of the field experienced the most stress and made the higher ringing tone. During our visit, we did find that the rocks toward the center of the field rang at a higher frequency than those along the edges. Other locations for ringing rocks around the world: Ringing Rocks Park– Upper Black Eddy, Pennsylvania, United States Ringing Rocks Park – Lower Pottsgrove Township, Pennsylvania, United States Ringing Rocks Point of Interest – Ringing Rocks, Montana, United States Bell Rock Range – Western Australia, Australia Musical Stones of Skiddaw – Cumbria, England Cerro de las Campanas (The Hill of the Bells) – Querétaro, Mexico The Ringing Stone – Tiree, Scotland Immenhof Guest Farm (Singing Stones) - Omaruru Namibia It was pretty cool clambering up and around large rocks banging on them with a hammer and hearing different tones. The boulder field itself is pretty impressive and it is further proof of how amazing our planet is. Outside of the boulder field, there's a hike toward a creek and a waterfall. It is a short loop hike with clear markers along the way. Vegetation in the boulder field is greatly limited (the boulders go 10 feet deep in some areas) so there is absolutely no shade available. Parking is free, but limited. Stay tuned for more family-friendly adventures as we explore our amazing planet Earth. Comments are closed.
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