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handtraverse
Nov 11, 2005, 3:26 PM
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I know that RC.com's audience and members consists of a lot of professional people, so I'm going to entertain my question / story here:
Are the cliffs moving??
I had a very interesting experience on the rock cliffs at Mt Tammany , NJ, in the Delaware Water Gap. I was sitting on the summit of the section of cliffs known as the "Roadside Wall". As I was enjoying the view, I heard a deep muffled sound, sort of like the sound a frozen lake would make when the ice cracks, except not as loud. Then following that sound I heard another sound..an extremely high pitched squeal that went on for maybe 2-3 seconds. And, no it wasn't an eagle or injured rabbit!
Coupled with what I said so far, a while back I managed to jam my wedding band in a hold between rocks as I was climbing. The ring was so tightly jammed I had to cut my finger off (no not really :wink: ) I had to pull my finger out and retrieve the ring later. A few days later I went to retrieve the ring and it had come loose on its own and slid way back down to he inside of the crack. (I did get it back using a long skinny stick...that got me out of the doghouse too!)
What's going on up there?
http://www.fauxandwood.com/lynnandtom1.JPG
Handtraverse
____________________________________
"Mountains are not fair or unfair - they are just dangerous." - Reinhold Messner
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overlord
Nov 11, 2005, 3:36 PM
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well, it could be the cliffs moving...
or it could be your ring deforming under pressure.
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tradgal
Nov 11, 2005, 3:37 PM
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I dont know about quakes or the pre-teen shrills you heard, but heat and cold cause objects to expand and contract. While a piece of gear may be stuck (wedding ring) at one part of the day, it may be loose later in the day.
And, as I understand it, the world is extremely dynamic and constantly moving and changing.
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singin_rocker
Nov 11, 2005, 3:39 PM
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Huh.
I've heard that Enchanted Rock down in Texas got it's name for the natives thinking it was haunted. They heard moaning and crunching sounds coming from the granite dome in the night. I don't think I've heard these sounds myself but supposedly they come from the rock expanding and contracting with the heat of the sun. I imagine that this kind of activity in time could amount to significant movement in the rocks, but I'm no scientist.
Could be that the park rangers like to play the legend up as well but it doesn't sound too far fetched to me.
Waylan
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mistymountainhop
Nov 11, 2005, 3:49 PM
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Much of the boulders in So Ill are believed to have fallen off in the new Madrid earth quake of the mid 1800's (?) Some of the older more spread out boulders have a high level of erosion while the relatively "new" boulders are much less free of erosion and show only the cleaving marks left by shearing away from the cliff. SO in another couple hundred of years all of the good boulders will be eroded into pockety, rotten choss. So unfortunately, my descendents 20 generations from now will not climb the same boulders i did :(
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handtraverse
Nov 11, 2005, 4:12 PM
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Heat and cold expansion and contraction all make sense to me. At the base of the rock cliffs is a huge talus slope because rocks break loose from the cliff face routinely... frequently large boulders as well. The rock is a sandstone conglomerate, unlike a solid granite or quarzite. But eventhough chunks the size of boulders break away from time to time, I still am thinking that that rumble type of sound I heard came from within even deeper than the depth of a boulder that's ready to break off...am I making myself clear as mud??
http://www.fauxandwood.com/autumnmttammany.JPG
http://www.fauxandwood.com/chimneyandscrabble2.JPG
Handtraverse
__________________________
"Mountains are not fair or unfair - they are just dangerous." - Reinhold Messner
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rockgoat
Nov 11, 2005, 4:21 PM
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It could be a tractor trailer truck going down the highway. :D
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outdoorsie
Nov 11, 2005, 4:29 PM
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In reply to: It could be a tractor trailer truck going down the highway. :D
LOL :lol:
Seriously, the way you described it, sounds like somebody started a big rig nearby with a loose fan belt. I feel like Click and Clack... "Could you make the noise for me?"
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saphius
Nov 11, 2005, 4:45 PM
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As a Jersey resident, I’ve always been told we have very little tectonic movement. I’d say what you heard was the expansion/contraction process brought on by the change in temperatures.
I’m currently in Hoboken, but I assume the temperature ‘round Jersey is typical Jersey weather for this time of year. As such, there are days where it’s warm enough for a short sleeve shirt and cold enough for a jacket (the rapid cooling v. warming factor).
If there were cracks in the wall, I would assume that the sound could reverberate from a deeper place outward. I would think that only the outer layers of rock are affected, though, due to the general depth and density. However, I’m not a geologist… in fact, I’m a Computer Science major at Stevens Tech ;) Would be interesting to find out more, though.
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davidji
Nov 11, 2005, 5:01 PM
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In reply to: I managed to jam my wedding band in a hold between rocks as I was climbing. |
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cintune
Nov 11, 2005, 5:24 PM
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In April of 1984 some friends of mine were in the Pequea Wind Cave along the Susquehanna River. It's one of the largest tectonic caves east of the Mississippi and has hundreds of feet of chimneys and traverses in narrow passages and a few more open "rooms" It's basically a city of rocks that hasn't been exposed by erosion yet. Anyway, they were in there when a 3.0 quake hit Conestoga, just a few miles away, and said that they saw the walls shift and heard a lot of weird noises before, during and after. They got out asap and weren't hurt, just scared shitless, and the ironic thing was that I was in San Francisco at the time; got back and heard about it a week later.
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iltripp
Nov 11, 2005, 6:00 PM
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A local N.C. cliff, "Rumbling Bald", is reputedly so named because of some 1874 earthquakes.
Maybe you felt a tremor, although it seems unlikely. There's a chance that some type of local geological office recorded some activity that day. Maybe there's someone you can contact and ask.
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