Posted on 04/17/2008 11:07:31 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
Earth gives off a relentless hum of countless notes completely imperceptible to the human ear, like a giant, exceptionally quiet symphony, but the origin of this sound remains a mystery.
Now unexpected powerful tunes have been discovered in this hum. These new findings could shed light on the source of this enigma.
The planet emanates a constant rumble far below the limits of human hearing, even when the ground isn't shaking from an earthquake. (It does not cause the ringing in the ear linked with tinnitus.) This sound, first discovered a decade ago, is one that only scientific instruments - seismometers - can detect. Researchers call it Earth's hum.
Investigators suspect this murmur could originate from the churning ocean, or perhaps the roiling atmosphere. To find out more, scientists analyzed readings from an exceptionally quiet Earth-listening research station at the Black Forest Observatory in Germany, with supporting data from Japan and China.
Different types
In the past, the oscillations that researchers found made up this hum were "spheroidal" - they basically involved patches of rock moving up and down, albeit near undetectably.
Now oscillations have been discovered making up the hum that, oddly, are shaped roughly like rings. Imagine, if you will, rumbles that twist in circles in rock across the upper echelons of the planet, almost like dozens of lazy hurricanes.
Scientists had actually expected to find these kinds of oscillations, but these new ring-like waves are surprisingly about as powerful as the spheroidal ones are. The expectation was they would be relatively insignificant.
New thinking
This discovery should force researchers to significantly rethink what causes Earth's hum. While the spheroidal oscillations might be caused by forces squeezing down on the planet - say, pressure from ocean or atmospheric waves - the twisting ring-like phenomena might be caused by forces shearing across the world's surface, from the oceans, atmosphere or possibly even the sun.
Future investigations of this part of the hum will prove challenging, as "this is a very small signal that is hard to measure, and the excitation is probably due to multiple interactions in a complex system," said researcher Rudolf Widmer-Schnidrig, a geoscientist at the University of Stuttgart, Germany.
Still, a better understanding of this sound will shed light on how the land, sea and air all interact, he added.
Researcher Dieter Kurrle and Widmer-Schnidrig detailed their findings March 20 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
who knows? it could be series. ;-)
Al Gore breaking wind
But...but...Earth Worshippers HATE HUMMERS!!!!!...........
I think I just heard it now... or maybe it’s just the bean burritos I had for lunch.
I believe there are places on Earth where people have traditionally said that you can sometimes hear a mysterious hum. I imagine that most of the hum being discussed here is at frequencies which humans cannot hear — but it would appear that the modulation sometimes rises up into our range.
True, but we must encourage everyone to remain clam.
I’ve heard of Cosmic background noise, this one has me hmmm’ing tho.., could it be an excited electromagnetic field phenomenon?
If anyone has some related sound links for this, please post.
Maybe this noise is what animals hear and then move out of dangers way when earthquakes are imminent.......
Hmmmmmmmmm......Hmmmmmmmm.....Hmmmmmmm
Running, fleeing,OUT of here! :)
|
must be a wavelength phase thing,, the right spot at the right time.. there are some spots that are reputed to be focal points for energy flux fields on Earth.
I wonder if its related to tooth fillings or jewelry.. Gold and amalgram, heightened solar activity, hmmm..
I’ll have to dig a little deeper on this one.. :-)
And why does the earth hum?
It don’t know the words.
Did they ever think to check for the souce in Tibet? Ommmmmm
Is it humming “Love me like a rock”?
thanks for posting the article.
Hear the hum?
Well, same thing. Larger scale, extremely lower frequency.
Jillions of units of energy go in at the poles, the ‘magnetic’ poles are the brushes.
The Earth supposedly has a fluidic,semi-metallic outer core (winding), and a dense, solid, inner core (armature shaft)
The horsey goes round and round.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.