Earth's Hum Sounds More Mysterious Than Ever

@icyorchid (2564)
United States
April 17, 2008 8:50am CST
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. ADVERTISEMENT 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. For More: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080416/sc_livescience/earthshumsoundsmoremysteriousthanever
2 people like this
3 responses
@stephcjh (38473)
• United States
5 Sep 08
I think the earth hums also because of all of the sizemic activity we have with earthquakes and volcanic action. Our earth is constanlt moving the rocks formations against each other and it sends vibrations.
@littleowl (7157)
17 Apr 08
hi icy that sounds so interesting-i love things like this the world is such a mystery in itself-i cant get through to link til i've sent this -your friend littleowl
@wickedangel (1636)
• Dominican Republic
17 Apr 08
I also thought that the hum came from the movement of the tectonic plates? It is quite fascinating isn't it? Just because we can't hear it, it doesn't mean that there isn't other 'noise' out there - perhaps Mother Nature is trying to tell us something?! Technology is quite fascinating we learn so much. It is the same as when they suddenly realised that whales sing. Humans are so arrogant, they think that they are the only ones who make noise that is understandable. Thanks for sharing this with us.