Sand Dunes that Croak, Whistle, Boom and Sing

By Queuebot in Travel on Aug 2, 2009 at 12:47 pm

When early humans heard these strange sounds in the middle of the desert they attributed them to many supernatural origins. Marco Polo believed they were spirit voices, and likened the noises to "the sounds of all kinds of musical instruments," and also "of drums and the clash of arms."
Find out how the different noises are made, and even listen to them yourself.

Individual grains of loose surface sand bounce up and down over the compacted lower layers of the dune. The interaction between the upper- and lower-layer sand grains produces vibrations that make sound, much as a violin string does as a bow passes over it.

The sound has been compared to the low note of the didgeridoo or a low-flying plane.

Link – via atlasobscura

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by coconutnut.


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  1. Johnny Cat
    Aug 2nd, 2009 at 12:47 pm

    the croaking one was bizarre.

  2. avraamov
    Aug 2nd, 2009 at 3:15 pm

    there’s a CD of this stuff available…

    http://www.and-oar.org/pop_and_32.html

  3. dooflotchie
    Aug 2nd, 2009 at 8:13 pm

    My cat (The DustBunny) *was* sleeping peacefully next to my computer chair until I played those audio files, both of which made her look up and shoot me a baleful “WTF?!” look. I lol’ed.

  4. abdulhamid
    Aug 3rd, 2009 at 5:21 pm

    Wow the booming sand sounds like the gaping maw of Allah Himself.


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