Actually, I work in a lab where I'm investigating ELF 'whistlers' that we've detected. It's really interesting stuff - we're not sure what causes them, but we've found some correlation between events and certain limits on the solar elevation angle. We think it might be ions getting trapped and moving along a field line.
This may be a bit off topic, but when I get into looking at this type of (mysterious, interesting) of Wikipedia article, I usually end up back at my favorite of the category:
I lived in Taos, NM for about a year and never heard the eponymous Hum. Recalling the recent Hacker News item about anechoic chambers, it wouldn't surprise me if it has something to do with how quiet the place is.
On more than one occasion standing outside the house on the mesa outside of town, the utter silence of the place got to me enough that I had to go back inside and talk to somebody. Perhaps my mind would have eventually filled the gap with a hum.
This is unrelated but your comment made me think of it and you may find it interesting.
At age 13 I moved from San Diego CA to Brooklyn Park MN. Shortly after the move I spent a summer helping my stepfather's grandfather build an addition on his house. He lived in Park Rapids MN which in a very isolated, rural area 4 hours north of Minneapolis. After the first few weeks there I started to feel like I was going crazy. I had no history of mental illness but I was suddenly feeling increasingly anxious and agitated with each new day...then I put a hat on.
After I put on the hat, I felt normal again. I had always lived in cities and never had an unobstructed view for more than a mile or so. Out in the country I could see for many miles and it had an effect on me. The bill of the hat blocked my view.
Or it is there (and maybe everywhere) but we can't hear it
One thing that's noticeable when it's really quiet (and having lived in a place where it is silent at night) is that the threshold of hearing changes a lot. Something that's barely audible in normal conditions can "scream" at night
These could be the underwater equivalent of the sound of wind in a cave.
Powered by volcanic emissions instead of wind. Depending on the shape of the orifice and the size/shape of the chamber, it could make any kind of sound.
I was thinking of filtering of the random noise by features in the environment as well - perhaps thermal gradients in the water setting up reflections &c.
I mean, how much more evidence do you need to see Lovecraft was spot on: Discovery of mysterious Antarctic mountains under ice, just as he described; mysterious sounds near the resting place of Cthulhu; what will be next, I wonder?
In large bodies of water, do you not observe oscillating sounds? I can't explain it very well (I forget the official name) but it's like pushing a wave onto another wave at just the right frequency so it creates a huge wave, could the same thing not happen with sounds in water? It might explain the ones that build up and then gradually decrease. I don't know much about this and am probably wrong but it's something I've always wondered.
If you had enough random sounds going off in the water, given enough time some would group up together I imagine to create freak sound waves.
I live in Calgary, AB and used to hear something similar to the Hum approximately 4 years ago. At the time I was in a basement suite and would occasionally wake up and would hear a humming noise (unsure if I was waking due to the hum or not.) Eventually, the conclusion that I came to was that because I was "underground" the low frequency of a train yard not far from my house was the cause of the noise.
My wife frequently tells me that I have sensitive ears. And I've had to leave rooms because of feedback in a sound system that no one seems to be able to hear.
"The Hum" [1] is the most interesting to me, because my dad claims he used to hear the exact same kind of sound -- like a diesel engine starting up -- in the mornings when he lived in an older house with my mother.
I'm German currently in Canada and I heard the Hum apparently quite often in the last few days, never in Germany though. I've been on a very remote ranch somewhere 3 hours from Kamloops, BC and at first, I thought it was indeed a diesel engine starting up. Thing is, there was no neighbor close to that huge property. Then I heard it also 500m further away, same noise, same volume and also the same pattern. It's just for a short moment, 3-5 single tones in a row.
Then I drove with an ATV to some lake in the middle of nowhere and heard it again. I asked the other person I was with and she just said "well, it's someone starting a diesel engine". And I thought again: Who does start a diesel engine in the middle of nowhere. I thought it might be an animal or so, but could never tell for sure.
Edit: The interesting aspect is that I heard the Hum probably 3-4 times. 2x I was alone and in both other occasions, two different people heard the same sound. So I guess it was not just in my ears.
Indeed. There was some speculation in one of the articles that it may have been big ice sheets sliding along rock that was making those subsonic noises.
I remember reading a wikipedia article on the Bloop about half a year ago, and none of these other unexplained sounds were on it. Seems like NOAA fanboys dug up and wrote the others.
That being said NOAA fanboys are far more preferable to Apple fanboys. :)
What, is there an archive out there that has every recorded sound by every single human being and along with has complete information about the recording, and only these 7 clips are not understood?
Partly - the specific ones all seem NOAA originated, which iirr is the American oceanographer group. They along with Navy proper have very vested interests in identifing unusual ocean sounds. But just as you can find parrots that say good morning, given enough fish swimming past enough deep seamicrophones, eventually one ofthem will
sound like they are whistling a braoadway tune
sorry folks, fun, creepy but in the end self selecting and
probably in the strange things happen on the planet category.
[+] [-] toemetoch|13 years ago|reply
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Hv--BR0ddE
also briefly addressed here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuRcaxpbYCw
edit: not on topic, should have refrained from posting as it's a VLF radio phenomenon and not a sound.
[+] [-] el_zorro|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] VMG|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rsanchez1|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] patdennis|13 years ago|reply
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal
[+] [-] evolve2k|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ANH|13 years ago|reply
On more than one occasion standing outside the house on the mesa outside of town, the utter silence of the place got to me enough that I had to go back inside and talk to somebody. Perhaps my mind would have eventually filled the gap with a hum.
[+] [-] Brock_Lee|13 years ago|reply
At age 13 I moved from San Diego CA to Brooklyn Park MN. Shortly after the move I spent a summer helping my stepfather's grandfather build an addition on his house. He lived in Park Rapids MN which in a very isolated, rural area 4 hours north of Minneapolis. After the first few weeks there I started to feel like I was going crazy. I had no history of mental illness but I was suddenly feeling increasingly anxious and agitated with each new day...then I put a hat on.
After I put on the hat, I felt normal again. I had always lived in cities and never had an unobstructed view for more than a mile or so. Out in the country I could see for many miles and it had an effect on me. The bill of the hat blocked my view.
[+] [-] raverbashing|13 years ago|reply
Or it is there (and maybe everywhere) but we can't hear it
One thing that's noticeable when it's really quiet (and having lived in a place where it is silent at night) is that the threshold of hearing changes a lot. Something that's barely audible in normal conditions can "scream" at night
Example: the sound of soda fizzing in your mouth.
[+] [-] dlsym|13 years ago|reply
(give it some time...)
and http://www.lostcosmonauts.com/firstman.ra managed to scare the hell out of me...
shiver
I wonder how fear and sounds like these are wired in our brains...
[+] [-] ars|13 years ago|reply
Powered by volcanic emissions instead of wind. Depending on the shape of the orifice and the size/shape of the chamber, it could make any kind of sound.
[+] [-] keithpeter|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ryanwaggoner|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] antidoh|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] petitmiam|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] johnconroy|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] amir|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pavel_lishin|13 years ago|reply
I can't find much about it after ten seconds' worth of googling, but maybe that's when it was constructed?
[+] [-] tintin|13 years ago|reply
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd-94VvaT0Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VbyyhCscVc
[+] [-] adaline|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dudurocha|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Void_|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] munchor|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Jun8|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] TomGullen|13 years ago|reply
If you had enough random sounds going off in the water, given enough time some would group up together I imagine to create freak sound waves.
[+] [-] stu_k|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bmunro|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gavingmiller|13 years ago|reply
My wife frequently tells me that I have sensitive ears. And I've had to leave rooms because of feedback in a sound system that no one seems to be able to hear.
[+] [-] mintplant|13 years ago|reply
[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hum
[+] [-] WA|13 years ago|reply
Then I drove with an ATV to some lake in the middle of nowhere and heard it again. I asked the other person I was with and she just said "well, it's someone starting a diesel engine". And I thought again: Who does start a diesel engine in the middle of nowhere. I thought it might be an animal or so, but could never tell for sure.
Edit: The interesting aspect is that I heard the Hum probably 3-4 times. 2x I was alone and in both other occasions, two different people heard the same sound. So I guess it was not just in my ears.
[+] [-] JonnieCache|13 years ago|reply
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00773qg
[+] [-] nilaykumar|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] munchor|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] huwr|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] maeon3|13 years ago|reply
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3fqE01YYWs
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] anaheim|13 years ago|reply
That being said NOAA fanboys are far more preferable to Apple fanboys. :)
[+] [-] hasenj|13 years ago|reply
What, is there an archive out there that has every recorded sound by every single human being and along with has complete information about the recording, and only these 7 clips are not understood?
[+] [-] pavel_lishin|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] riffraff|13 years ago|reply
1. X sound is found and nobody understands what causes it
2. X gets a wikipedia page
3. someone creates a list of various pages such as X
4. optional, some other people add more pages such as X having noticed the list
[+] [-] lifeisstillgood|13 years ago|reply
sorry folks, fun, creepy but in the end self selecting and probably in the strange things happen on the planet category.
[+] [-] mynameishere|13 years ago|reply
"Bloop"
Wow. Maybe it was the loch ness monster on vacation. Or maybe...a bubble. I mean, come on.