Science has made it possible to detect, in different parts of the planet, noises of nature whose origin they have not always been able to determine. Every day humans are exposed to an enormous amount of sounds. Most of them are very banal and we know perfectly well what causes them, but others are not like that, they are strange and little known.
Thanks to new technologies, researchers have detected noises whose origin they sometimes cannot determine exactly, and that is that sound waves propagate mechanically as a vibration and that is why they need a medium – liquid, solid or gaseous – to travel, which creates many of the sounds we hear in nature.
Nature also has its own strange sounds
1. The ‘Bloop’
With this term we know some strange low frequency sound waves detected in 1997 by the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The noise lasted for about a minute, during which its frequency increased. According to NOAA, the noise is produced earthquakes generated by large icebergs that crack and fracture. The origin of the sound was located in the south of the Pacific Ocean.
2. The saddest whale in the world
In 1989, oceanographers captured a whale song that did not correspond to any species known at that time. This unidentified species became known as “the 52 hertz whale” because of the frequency at which it sang, and which causes us humans a sensation of deep loneliness. The sound produced by ‘the saddest whale in the world’ is absolutely unique, given that normally the song of these large cetaceans is between 15 and 25 hertz.
3. From the depths of the oceans
The Challenger Deep, in the Mariana Trench in the northwestern Pacific, is the deepest point on Earth. In 2016, scientists sent a coated titanium hydrophone to the site, convinced that they would record absolute silence. But, however, after three weeks of recording they obtained a totally unexpected result: at a depth of almost 12,000 meters discovered a cacophony of sounds composed of the echo of noises produced by humans, marine animals, boats and other machines.
4. The inexplicable hum of the Earth
The hum, or ‘The Hum’, is what a intriguing sound which has been registered in various regions of our planet and which has caused numerous speculations about its origin. Most of these hums, which have a fairly low frequency, were recorded in 2012.
5. The Rainbow Bridge
Rainbow Bridge it’s a natural rock bridge which is located in the state of Utah, United States, and has the status of a national monument. This rock surprised everyone when it was revealed that produced sounds. The hum of this great stone arch, considered by Native Americans to be a sacred placehas a fairly low frequency.
6. The Northern Lights
The Northern Lights are not only a fascinating visual phenomenon, but also produce chilling sounds that are part of the popular culture of the inhabitants of the northern Arctic.
7. The song of the Moon
Recordings published in 2008 reveal that the crew of the American Apollo 10 mission, which flew over about 15,000 meters from the surface of the Moon, heard strange sounds. Only many years after the flight the audios were made public with those mysterious noises.
8. Jupiter, another galactic singer
In 2016 it was discovered that the Moon is not the only one that sings in open space. Juno, the NASA probe, was orbiting nearly to find more information about the planet and the formation of the solar system. The probe tuned in to Jupiter’s acoustic spectacle, and the radio emissions produced by its auroras were recorded and transformed into audible sounds by NASA.
9. The black hole
The Moon and Jupiter could make a nice trio with a black hole. The best candidate would be the supermassive black hole found in the Perseus cluster. In 2003, NASA discovered that this space object produces sound waves. 57 octaves lower than a regular C. In musical terms, one could say that the noise generated by that black hole corresponds to the note B flat.
10. The chorus of the earth
It is a phenomenon, according to NASA, produced by plasma waves or radiation belts that surround and “pass through” the earth. Sound propagates through there, and not through the air, like what we can perceive in everyday life.
11. The singing sand dunes
Marco Polo, Darwin, and surely other explorers have talked about this strange phenomenon with great curiosity. Recently, researchers at the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris explained that the melodious sound comes from grains of sand sliding down the slopes.