Ringing Rocks Park - Bucks County - Upper Black Eddy, PA
N 40° 33.750 W 075° 07.769
18T E 489038 N 4490200
In this park is a field of boulders, about 7-8 acres in size, that have an unusual property. When struck with a hammer or another rock, the rocks sound as if they are metal and hollow and ring with a sound similar to a metal pipe being struck.
Waymark Code: WM44W8
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 07/07/2008
Views: 101
Come for the earthcache but stay for the fun! These rocks emit musical tones when struck with an object like a hammer, so bring one! Not all the rocks play music, maybe a third of them or so. I went with a geocaching group a few years back to check it out and wasn't expecting much but I was pleasantly surprised to say the least. You must wear hiking boots or an incredible pair of sneakers as this is dangerous and can snap an ankle in a heartbeat! Once you walk to the middle, you are amidst several acres of rock and it is perilous. This is a publicly accessible park with geocaches and lots of nature and parking is abundant at the entrance. It is not that far of a walk.
Remember, the terrain, once out in the boulder field is close to a 5. it is very difficult to walk and very easy to sprain an ankle. Exercise great caution when visiting and bring a hammer.
The boulders are made of a substance called diabase which is basically volcanic basalt. This is one of the largest diabase boulder fields in the Eastern United States. The boulders have a high content of iron and aluminum and were thought to have broken apart during the Pleistocene Epoch probably about 12,000 years ago. The boulders were created through many years of freeze-thaw cycles that broke up the diabase into individual pieces, a process known as "frost wedging". The rocks may then have accumulated in this one area as the water saturated soil provided lubrication for the stones to "creep" downhill to their present location, a process known as "solifluction". This could have happened during the prior ace ages when overlying most soil literally slid over the frozen permafrost below, carrying the boulders with it.
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