
Mysterious Musical Stones of Ringing Rocks Park in Pennsylvania - Earth_Change
http://strangesounds.org/2013/06/geological-oddity-the-mysterious-musical-stones-of-ringing-rocks-park-in-pennsylvania.html
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phyzome
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringing_rocks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringing_rocks)

Contradicting the article:

« The boulders continue to ring when removed from the boulder fields. Myths
have been developed by authorities to discourage the theft of boulders from
the fields. At the current stage, however, most fields have been picked clean
of small portable "ringers", and breaking of large boulders into smaller
pieces releases the internal stresses—thus causing them to stop ringing (i.e.,
breaking a piece off of a large ringing rock will only gain a dead chunk of
rock). "Small" ringers found today weigh over a ton and would have to be
dragged out of the boulder fields using large equipment. »

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getty
Found ringing rocks at the top of jagged limestone mountains in Vang Vieng,
Laos a few months ago. Here's what they sound like:
[https://streamable.com/yj916](https://streamable.com/yj916)

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seanhunter
I'm not sure these really are particularly mysterious. The rock resonates when
struck in the same way than bells do. This is true of glass, metal and some
crystals obviously so it doesn't require any strange mechanism to work in
rocks as long as presumably the rock has a particular consistency and shape
and you can hold it in such a way that it can resonate without you clamping
the vibrations.

Musical stones or rocks are known in many places around the world. Here are
some examples:

Africa - [http://www.namibian.org/travel/archaeology/musical-
stone.htm...](http://www.namibian.org/travel/archaeology/musical-stone.html)
UK - [https://www.neatorama.com/2007/01/28/the-original-rock-
music...](https://www.neatorama.com/2007/01/28/the-original-rock-music-stones-
that-sing/)

Stalactites often resonate beautifully when struck with a soft mallet. I've
been in caves in France and in Africa where tour guides demonstrated this
phenomenon.

Here's a recording of music played on a rock sculpture specifically designed
to be playable like a xylophone -[https://www.amazon.com/Music-Stones-Stephan-
Micus/dp/B000025...](https://www.amazon.com/Music-Stones-Stephan-
Micus/dp/B000025ZXK)

This one is pretty cool, because it explains how a particular set of musical
pillars in India were constructed so they play a scale.
[http://www.phenomenalplace.com/2017/09/musical-pillars-at-
ha...](http://www.phenomenalplace.com/2017/09/musical-pillars-at-hampi-india-
how-do.html)

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JulianMorrison
I don't approve of just randomly going and hitting them with metal hammers,
you'll erode them to nothing that way.

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subpixel
This. What a bunch of yahoos destroying an interesting natural phenomenon with
fucking hammers. The video even suggests wearing eye protection so rock chips
don’t hit you in the cornea, but makes no mention of damaging the very thing
you find so interesting.

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grosjona
At the same time, it's just a regular rock until you hit it with a hammer. If
nobody ever hits those rocks with a hammer then they might as well not exist.
I don't think animals, plants, trees, fungus, bacteria or the rocks themselves
care if they're smashed to shards. So they're purely for human enjoyment.

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toss1
why not go all the way into solipsism and declare that all other humans also
don't care and are just there for your amusement?

(I can guarantee you that at the very least, the animals care a lot whether
they get smashed)

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dave_aiello
I've been to Ringing Rocks Park in Upper Black Eddy, PA several times,
[http://www.buckscounty.org/government/ParksandRecreation/Par...](http://www.buckscounty.org/government/ParksandRecreation/Parks/RingingRocks).
It's in easy driving distance of my house.

I think visiting the park is a great experience for many people. But it could
be dangerous for very young children, and difficult to inaccessible for people
with mobility and balance differences.

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ktr
Totally agree! I took my 4 year old and 2.5 year old recently and we had a
heck of a time making sure we didn’t get hurt. They did have fun though :)

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SenHeng
So this was the inspiration for the Singing Towers of Darillium[0][1]?

[0]:
[http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Singing_Towers](http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Singing_Towers)
[1]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJqE2onQUSk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJqE2onQUSk)

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abathur
I found a rock like this as a child (but cream colored, fairly flat, about the
size of a dinner plate, and an inch or two thick), though I'd never heard of
the phenomena from any other source until now.

I think I found it on a trip, but I'm not certain which. It's probably still
sitting in my parent's garden, somewhere.

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zyxzevn
Ancient India used similar tricks to make different sounds on pillars and
statues of a certain building:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhoOA3pASy4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhoOA3pASy4)

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nhance
There are several more of these in the local area that only the locals know
about. I've spent time exploring this park and others. Is it really that rare?

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dvh
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonolite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonolite)

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loopycode
These rocks are present in India too

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RickJWagner
Amazing. I think that's truly cool.

