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.
(Department Of Helpful Parentheticals PING)
Hmmmm! I always assumed that was the sound of the air going through one of Al Gores ears and out the other one.
ping
I understand that the humming sounds eerily similar to the Doctor Who theme music which drove the Master mad . . .
mystery solved ,, or maybe not..
it’s pounding waves on the ocean..
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=Earth%27s+Hum&fr=yfp-t-309&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8
I don’t know, some folks are still not so sure..
I’d put my money on the Mole People
“Maybe this noise is what animals hear and then move out of dangers way when earthquakes are imminent.......”
I suspect animals hear a peak, or change in frequency of the noise, with a sudden loss of the signal, just at the onset of the earthquake.
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation. . .while the morning stars sang together . . .?” (Job 38.4ff)
Love me like Barack.
WOW. Could the moonbats of Sedona be right about their vortexes ?
“Taos Hum”
Thank you maggief.
It’s the sound of our forefathers spinning in their graves.
BUSHES FAULT.........
>>>Maybe this noise is what animals hear and then move out of dangers way when earthquakes are imminent.....
Quite an interesting thought.
The entire planet is a Helmholtz sphere with its characteristic resonant frequency of about 8 Hz.
or maybe “2001”....
Chillin’... waiting for you to put me in, Coach.
“Gold and amalgram, heightened solar activity, hmmm..”
Heightened solar activity causes not only more growth, but better growth.
Plants are ‘healthier’ during heightened solar activity.
People, for instance, are ‘smarter’, during heightened solar activity.
Which is why it seems the world around us has gone insane lately. The Race for President, for example.
I have noticed that many, many posters keep making the same mistake while entering a post. They leave out words, or use IS where IN should be, etc.
The SUN is vewwwy quiet right now (which we all know), and I think our brains need the GAMMA RAYS as stimulus.
Maybe that's where the word rock came from to start with....
And of course...that leads to "Rock and Roll"....which leads to....
The problem is....If we can't hear it....Does it exist??
It's probably some old refrigerator....Or....The factory that makes ribbons from all the "lost socks".
Or maybe....It's just "A HUMMER"...that someone left running.
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