Ringing rocks
rocks that resonate like a bell when struck
Ringing rocks, also known as sonorous rocks or lithophonic rocks, are rocks that resonate like a bell when struck. Examples include the Musical Stones of Skiddaw in the English Lake District; the stones in Ringing Rocks Park, in Upper Black Eddy, Bucks County, Pennsylvania; the Ringing Rocks of Kiandra, New South Wales; and the Bell Rock Range of Western Australia. Ringing rocks are used in idiophonic musical instruments called lithophones.
Early investigations
Several early scientists became interested in the ringing rocks; however, none were able to formulate a credible theory on the ringing ability of the rocks or the formation of the boulder fields.
Edgar T. Wherry (1885–1982), mineralogist and botanist, became interested in the ringing rocks while teaching at Lehigh University. Wherry theorized that the ringing was due to the texture of the diabase rocks and that they were supported by other rocks. He identified the boulder fields as a type of felsenmeer.
At the 13th Annual meeting of the Bucks Historical Society in June 1900, Charles Laubach, a noted local geologist and naturalist, described the geology of the diabase "trap" sills with reference to sites such as Bridgeton, Stony Garden, and others.
Benjamin Franklin Fackenthal (1851–1941), local industrialist and trustee of Franklin & Marshall College, became interested with the ringing rocks. Although not a professional geologist, Fackenthal made extensive observations on all of the boulder fields.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7334900. Authority coordinates are 40.563, -75.127. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1885, 1982, 1900 and 1851.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ringing rocks” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.