Balancing Rocks Around the World Quiz

Answer: Logan

It is not clear where the 'rocking' meaning comes from although there are several such named rocks around the country. All the names given as answers, apart from Logan, have 'rock' meanings. Logan is a Scottish name meaning 'little hollow', comes from the Gaelic language and is unrelated.

The photo (from around 1895) shows one of the more famous examples, the Logan Rock near Treen, Cornwall, UK (highest one on the photo) and weighing about 80 tonnes. It gets a mention in William Mason's 1759 poem "Caractacus". This also seems to have inspired poet Oliver Goldsmith's nephew to organise a navy crew with crowbars to topple it in 1824. It was an important tourist attraction so complaints soon followed and the Admiralty were persuaded to see it reinstated, which took months of effort. It still rocks but not as easily as before.

Answer: Switzerland

This battle played a part in helping to establish the Swiss Confederation. The Habsburg duke Leopold of Austria led a trained army against a militia of farmers and herdsmen. They were ambushed on a path between a steep slope and swamp, with rocks being rolled down on them from above. The halberd, a pole weapon with axe blade topped with a spike, is said to have played a key role, allowing the unarmoured militia to tackle armoured knights of the Austrians. Many Austrians were killed or drowned.

Woodcuts, drawings and paintings such as shown in the image have been made over the centuries to commemorate the battle. There is even one on the front outside wall of the Morgarten town hall.

Answer: Through weathering

The boulders are from the top layers of the granite bedrock. A combination of chemical and mechanical weathering has resulted in the modern-day 'marbles'. As the sandstone overburden gradually disappeared, the weight reduced and the top layer of the granite expanded, cracking into blocks. In time the expansion and contraction of the outer layers of the blocks resulted in exfoliation, with the higher stresses towards edges causing the rounding. Eventually these marbles will disappear.

Answer: Glacier flow direction

The name 'erratic' is due to the rock's wandering rather than its unpredictability. One of the key things distinguishing a glacial erratic from an ordinary boulder is that it is typically of a non-local rock type. The place of origin can be identified and the fact that it was transported to its current position gives an idea of the direction of glacial flow. To complicate the situation, there are also iceberg-transported erratics and even kelp holdfast-transported erratics. It is not possible to deduce whether its transport has been by one or more glaciers in different ice ages.

The shape and size of the rock and whether it has any nearby siblings also provides information such as whether it landed on the glacier as a result of a rockfall. While the rock would give an indication of how high the glacier was at that time it was deposited, this would not point to when this happened nor the maximum thickness of the glacier as it does not take into account any erosion of the bed under the glacier after the rock was deposited nor the history of the glacier before the rock arrived.

Answer: Buddhism

There is a legend associated with the boulder, also known as the Golden Rock. Briefly, Buddha gave a strand of his hair to a hermit called Taik Tha. The hermit returned the favour with the request that the strand be enshrined in a boulder the shape of the hermit's head.

This was done by retrieving a boulder from the sea floor and it is said, according to the legend, the enshrined strand of hair prevents the boulder from tumbling. The boat used to transport the rock is also a shrine, the Kyaukthanban Pagoda or stupa which is some 300m (980 ft) away. During a pilgrimage, only men approach the rock, affixing gold leaf squares to the rock as part of their veneration.

The light at dawn and dusk show the Golden Rock at its best.

Answer: Canyoning

Aron Ralston was solo canyoning, descending Bluejohn Canyon, a slot canyon in Utah, when he dislodged a suspended boulder and trapped his right hand against the canyon wall. No-one knew he was there and he had no way to call for help. By the sixth day his trapped arm had begun to decompose due to lack of blood circulation.

He survived by cutting it off. This allowed him to make his way out of the canyon and find help.

Answer: Greece

Meteora is an area of sandstone pillars and hill-like boulders on which 24 Eastern Orthodox monasteries were built mostly in the second half of the 14th century. Although many of the monasteries have fallen into ruins, none of the pillars or boulders on which they were built have collapsed. Rock falls are a hazard that visitors need to be aware of and the area is also prone to sink holes, however the monasteries survived a magnitude 7 earthquake in 1954 unscathed.

The photo shows Varlaam and Rousanou, two of the six which are open to the public.

Answer: True

Sandstone rock is a relatively soft rock which gets even softer in rain. In order to reduce the rate of erosion, there are rules banning climbing after rain for a day or three. Using rock-damaging safety equipment is also banned, meaning that leader protection might be from using knotted rope loops jammed in cracks or threaded through natural holes in the rock (with the knot tied one-handed).

This is probably less of an issue for those who participate in the sport of rock-jumping, leaping from pillar top to pillar top. Pillars are not always stable - a 10-metre (33 ft) pillar fell over one night during November 2024.

Answer: Zimbabwe

The Zimbabwean dollar replaced the Rhodesian dollar in 1980 and balancing rocks have appeared on the notes. Using the rocks is said to be a metaphor for the balance between development and environmental protection. The balancing rocks are also culturally significant and a symbol of national resilience. Balancing rocks continue to appear on bank notes of the Zimbabwe Gold currency which replaced the Zimbabwean dollar in April 2024.

Answer: Nuclear

Where there are a number of precariously balanced rocks in an area, this suggests that the region has been reasonably stable over recent eons and does not have a geology prone to significant movement during earthquakes. It also gives an idea of how far out from an epicentre that the land is affected. This is important to the nuclear industry both for siting power stations and for the storage of nuclear waste. Improved earthquake hazard maps are also helpful for the insurance industry, for setting building codes and for disaster management plans.