April 29, 2025 • 20 mins
From underwater anomalies to the notorious Hum heard around the world, these eight strange sounds are difficult to explain.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG3JDTWW2fU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up4BhgfjA2A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPae-2nnsoY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmaxQgAaKns
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
The world
communicates with us in intriguing ways,sometimes with eerie,
unexplainable whispers and hums.
Strange sounds have long haunted
human imaginationacross every nation on Earth.
In the deepest stretches of our oceans,there are noises
(00:28):
so weird, so unsettling
that they defy the laws of known science.
Tonight we're going to hear eight strange
sounds that can't be explained.
This is a study of strange.
(01:01):
Welcome back to the show.
I'm Michael May. Strange sounds.
You've likely heard some of these before.
And I was researching a few of themfor their own individual episodes,
but I discovered it was hardto cover this topic with just 1 or 2.
So I've put togetherthe eight sounds that I think are still
(01:22):
not definitively explained,and that creep me out.
Tell me what you think and if there'sany sounds that creep you out.
Do you want to share with me?
Send me a message on Instagramand a study of strange or an email.
A study of strange at gmail.com.
number one.
The bloop.
Let's begin with the mostwell known of these strange sounds.
(01:46):
From the deep,uncharted expanses of the ocean.
In 1997, NOAA,
the National Oceanicand Atmospheric Administration
captured something in the remotearea of the South Pacific Ocean
around 50 degrees south 100 degrees west.
And this is west of the southern pointof South America.
(02:08):
It was an ultra low frequency,extremely powerful sound, so loud
it was picked up by several hydrophonesmore than 3000 miles apart.
Hydrophones.I'll mention them a lot today.
Are a type of underwater microphone.
This sound.
They called it the bloop.
(02:40):
It's hard to tell from that recording
because it just soundssort of like a bubble in water,
but it is at an immense volumeand it has a unique profile,
which led to speculationabout a giant sea creature
like a gargantuan whaleand even a kazoo Lou type monster.
In fact, it is the loudest underwaternoise ever recorded.
(03:03):
For comparison, bluewhales, the largest animals on Earth,
can produce calls that carry acrosshundreds of miles.
The bloop dwarfed even that.
Doctor Christopher
Fox, a researcher with the NOAA,famously admitted that he thought
it could be a living animal, yetundiscovered.
Eventually,the consensus has settled on ice quakes
(03:26):
after triangulation of recordingsand other sciencey things.
Ice quakes are massive icebergs
fracturing or groundingagainst the seabed near Antarctica.
The sound profile has matchedthese events, but the bloop scale,
it's overwhelmingreach still leaves some skeptical.
(03:46):
There are conspiracies ofnot just giant sea creatures,
but secret submarinesor other military experiments.
How could ice alone create such resonance?
And why does it trigger our imaginationsso vividly?
Perhaps because we knowmore about the surface of Mars
than the ocean floor.
(04:07):
Number two, the hum.
You may have heard of the Tao some.
Or the Bristol hum.
There's a handful of these phenomenaaround the world towns Bristol,
Windsor, Ontario,just to name a few of these hot spots.
What is it?
First reported in the 1970s, it'sa persistent,
invasive, low frequencyhumming or rumbling sound.
(04:30):
Sometimes described as being likethe idling of a truck engine.
it's frequently worse at night.
And it sounds like it's comingfrom everywhere.
And nowhere.
(05:05):
Each of those recordingsare from a different location,
but you can tell that they all sharesome similar aspects.
And here's what's wonderfully strangeabout this sound.
Not everyone hears it.
In any given location,about 2 to 4% of the population
can perceive the hum for those who do.
It can be unbearable and has causedinsomnia, headaches, nausea, nosebleeds.
(05:29):
There are some vague articles from EnglandI read that say that this sound
has caused at least one suicide, thoughI have not been able to confirm that.
Here's a quote from The Atlantic.
Sufferers known as Hummers have pointedfingers at sources
such as electrical powerlines, wireless communication devices,
(05:51):
and low frequencyelectromagnetic radiation.
For decades, doctorsdismissed patients complaints as tinnitus,
an auditory problemthat affects 15% of people.
But the latest research suggeststhat the noise is not a hallucination,
and that many Hummers do not sufferfrom impaired hearing.
End quote Steve Koolhaas,an engineer from Connecticut,
(06:13):
was so tormentedby the hum that he spent over $30,000
on an investigationand some legal fees because of the hum.
A study in Taos, New Mexico, conductedby Los Alamos National Laboratory,
say that the Hums origin remains a mysteryin most locations.
In some cases, machinery or infrastructure
(06:35):
have been identified and addressed,but in others nothing.
There's no explanation.
Some researcherssuggest the hum could stem
from seismic activityor atmospheric conditions.
Others proposeit could be a product of human sensitivity
to low frequency electromagnetic fields.
(06:55):
I came across some informationabout a small percentage of people
that might be able to have essentiallysuper sensitive hearing.
Being able to hear sounds outsideof our normal range or frequency.
But there's still beenno definitive conclusions on these hums.
And they may all be unrelated.
There could be a variety of causessince all these locations are so far apart
(07:19):
in the world,but it is a very curious thing.
Number three up sweep.
we return to the ocean.
This is another recording from Eno,a captured
from the equatorial autonomous hydrophonearrays.
The up sweep was discoveredwhen the Pacific Marine Environmental
(07:40):
Laboratory beganusing a sound surveillance system in 1991,
and it's a repeating series of narrow
band up,sweeping sounds across the Pacific.
(08:12):
Up sweep is seasonal.
It peaks in the springand autumn of each year.
It's also loud enough to be heardthrough the entire Pacific Ocean.
This pattern suggests it's likely natural.
Another theory is that it's possibleunderwater volcanic activity.
Its source was triangulated to an area
near volcanic seamountsin the south central Pacific.
(08:35):
But the exact causehas never been confirmed.
In a way as proposed,
it could be due to the interactionbetween magma and seawater.
But what's strange about thatis that up sweeps
intensity has been slowlydeclining over the decades.
If this were simply volcanic activity,why this steady fade?
And no direct observations of eruptions
(08:57):
have matched these sounds.
Number four Julia.
In 1999,a mysterious voice emerged from the ocean,
one that sounded disturbingly familiarand lasted
about a minuteand carried a haunting, resonant quality.
NOAA scientists have named it Julia.
(09:32):
Julia's source is
traced to a regionbetween Brandes Fields Strait and Cape
Adare near Antarctica,an area rich with icebergs.
So naturally,the prevailing theory is an enormous
iceberggrounding itself on the ocean floor.
This could produce a long,reverberating cry underwater.
(09:54):
Indeed, Julia's Eventslocation and sound profile
match what would be expectedfrom an iceberg impact.
But the sound?
It's rising, sort of wailing, humanlike pitch invites speculation
and conspiracies that it could besomething beyond our understanding.
Part of the fun of this is thatJulia has only been recorded once,
(10:16):
but that single occurrencewas powerful enough to be heard
across the entire Eastern Pacifichydrophone array.
One recording, one moment
that continues to stir imaginations.
Number five, the slowdown.
I was tempted to combine this with Julia,so maybe I'll call it for a
(10:39):
because it's another underwater mysterywith a similar theory.
It was first recorded on May 19th, 1997,
near the equatorial Pacific region.
The sound is a long, eerie moan
that slowly descends in pitch,
lasting for seven minutes.
(11:17):
To me it
almost sounds like a plane landing,but the name says it all
Its source was pinpointednear the Antarctic Peninsula.
Much like Julia.
The leading theory is that this, too,is the sound of an iceberg
dragging along something like a seabed.
But here's where it's different.
Slow down has been recordedmultiple times each year since 1997.
(11:39):
If it's just ice scraping along rock,why does it occur with such consistency?
Number six the Seneca guns
in 1850.
James Fenimore Cooper,author of The Last of the Mohicans,
wrote a book called The Lake Gun
about a phenomenahe heard at Seneca Lake, New York.
(12:02):
It was a loud,startling boom or explosion,
seemingly coming from the sky,but with no visual phenomena.
He mentioned a deep, hollow,imposing nature,
while emphasizing that it couldn'tbe explained by known natural law.
This sound, or somethingsimilar, has been heard
in many other locations around the globe.
(12:23):
The North Sea, parts of Italy,Bangladesh, Japan,
India,Australia, as well as Canada and Mexico.
These mysterious
sounds are also known as sky quakes,depending on where you are,
(12:44):
and they have been mentionedeven earlier than 1850.
In 1804, the Lewis and Clark Expedition
encountered something bizarre near GreatFalls in Montana.
Meriwether Lewis wrote.
Since our arrival at the falls,we have repeatedly witnessed a noise
which proceeds from a directiona little to the north of west,
(13:05):
as loud and resemblingprecisely the discharge of a piece
of ordinance of 6 poundsat the distance of three miles.
Clark added in his notes a rumbling
like cannon at a greatdistance is heard to the west of us.
The cause we can't account.
I found a recording from Coloradothat seems to be very similar
(13:26):
to these descriptions,and similar to the Lake Seneca Sound.
Here it is.
(13:53):
Scientists have proposed a
range of possible causesmeteors exploding high in the atmosphere,
gas erupting from pockets underground,Distant thunder or lightning generated.
Shock waves funneled over long distances,even big waves
hitting offshore cliffs and making soniclike concussions.
(14:15):
Manmade causeslike sonic booms from aircraft
or secret military testsare also considered in modern accounts.
But here's something interesting.
From that second sound I played.
The video I got that from is captionedthat it sounds right before an earthquake.
And some theories for thesesounds suggest that shallow
earthquakes make booms, earthquake booms,
(14:38):
and that has been consideredfor the sinica guns,
though I also have come across a reportthat contradicts that.
It's from seismologists statingthat these sounds are not seismic events.
Since there are many reportsacross many locations and time,
these events may be due to various causesand they just have a similar sound.
(15:01):
But regardless, it's a major mystery.
Before I move on, I want to mention thata lot of the recordings
I've had to look up for today's episodehave been proven to be hoaxes or fake.
I've only been sharing ones that I thinkare legitimate recordings of these sounds,
but it's been difficultbecause there are a lot of fake ones
(15:23):
online, and people are repurposethose fake ones over and over again
for TikTok or YouTube shorts.
So you have to navigate this subjectvery delicately.
And I mention this nowbecause the sky quake topic,
the Seneca guns herewas particularly difficult, probably
more than the other ones,to find decent recordings.
And I mention this only becauseif you're interested in this topic
(15:46):
and you want to pull upsome YouTube videos or recordings online,
just be careful what you come across.
A lot of people will speed upor slow down these sounds,
which makes it sound like somethingentirely different.
So do with that information, as you will.
Number seven,
I'm turning to a phenomenonthat inspired H.P.
(16:07):
Lovecraft, the Moodys noises.
For centuries,the small town of Moody, Connecticut,
has been plagued by strange and unsettlingsounds.
These noises, often described as a boom
or a slight rumble, can't be explained.
The earliest records dateback to the 17th century, with Native
(16:29):
American tribes referring to the areaas a place of noises.
Colonial settlersalso allegedly documented experiences
describing loud, sudden sounds
that seemed to emanate from the grounditself.
These noises were often accompaniedby a sense of unease.
(17:02):
Early explanations and theories
have ranged from supernatural causesto geological phenomena.
Some believe the sounds werethe work of spirits or demons.
While others have speculatedabout underground caverns collapsing
or volcanic activity.
Seismologists have suggestedthat the sounds could be related to small
(17:22):
earthquakes.
We don't think of Connecticutas having earthquakes, but they do.
They even had one aroundfive on the Richter scale,
just within the last yearor two of my memory serves.
However, the unique characteristicsof the modest noises, such
as their variability and unpredictability,have led some to doubt.
Earthquakes alonecan fully explain the experience.
(17:45):
Another theory involvesthe presence of underground water systems.
It's possible that the movement of waterthrough subterranean channels,
or the collapse of water filled cavities,could produce these strange sounds.
Despite numerous investigations,the exact cause
of the Buddhist noises remains a mystery.
(18:06):
Number eight
of rural sounds.
So we've covered a lot
deep in the ocean today,but now we're looking up to the sky
because our next mystery dealswith the northern and Southern lights.
For centuries, cultures across the ArcticCircle have spoken of faint crackles,
(18:27):
hisses, or even whispers accompanyingthese brilliant displays of light.
But for a long time, scientistsdismissed these claims as folklore.
After allthe auroras occur high in the ionosphere,
far too distant to produce audible sound.
That is, until technology caught up.
(19:08):
Finnish scientists soon to lane recorded
these elusive noisesand has studied them for many years.
he discoveredthat under specific conditions,
the auroras can indeed produce sound,but not from above.
The theory charged particlesfrom the aurora disrupt the electric field
near the surface,causing electrostatic discharges.
(19:31):
Tiny sparksjust a few hundred feet above the Earth.
It's these small bursts of electricitythat create the faint,
popping, hissing, crackling,whisper type sounds
This does require more studyingto fully confirm the theory,
because there are other scientiststhat have different ideas.
Some initially even speculated thatthe sound is actually just an illusion.
(19:54):
It's an eerie experience.
Imagine standing in a frozen, silent fieldbeneath the dancing curtains
of the aurora borealis and hearingstrange sounds that creep me out.
Again, if you have anysounds that I didn't cover earlier today
that really intrigueyou, creep you out, or just fascinate you,
feel free to send me a messageon Instagram or an email.
(20:18):
A study of strange at gmail.com. Com.
Thank you so muchfor listening to the show.
Looking ahead,I have a very fascinating interview
coming up in the next week or twothat you won't want to miss.
So if you're new to
the show, make sure to subscribe,follow, leave a rating and review.
It goes a long way to helping us out,
and you can learnmore at his study of strange.com.
(20:40):
Thank you and good night.
The world
communicates with us in intriguing ways,sometimes with eerie,
unexplainable whispers and hums.
Strange sounds have long haunted
human imaginationacross every nation on Earth.
In the deepest stretches of our oceans,there are noises
(00:28):
so weird, so unsettling
that they defy the laws of known science.
Tonight we're going to hear eight strange
sounds that can't be explained.
This is a study of strange.
(01:01):
Welcome back to the show.
I'm Michael May. Strange sounds.
You've likely heard some of these before.
And I was researching a few of themfor their own individual episodes,
but I discovered it was hardto cover this topic with just 1 or 2.
So I've put togetherthe eight sounds that I think are still
(01:22):
not definitively explained,and that creep me out.
Tell me what you think and if there'sany sounds that creep you out.
Do you want to share with me?
Send me a message on Instagramand a study of strange or an email.
A study of strange at gmail.com.
number one.
The bloop.
Let's begin with the mostwell known of these strange sounds.
(01:46):
From the deep,uncharted expanses of the ocean.
In 1997, NOAA,
the National Oceanicand Atmospheric Administration
captured something in the remotearea of the South Pacific Ocean
around 50 degrees south 100 degrees west.
And this is west of the southern pointof South America.
(02:08):
It was an ultra low frequency,extremely powerful sound, so loud
it was picked up by several hydrophonesmore than 3000 miles apart.
Hydrophones.I'll mention them a lot today.
Are a type of underwater microphone.
This sound.
They called it the bloop.
(02:40):
It's hard to tell from that recording
because it just soundssort of like a bubble in water,
but it is at an immense volumeand it has a unique profile,
which led to speculationabout a giant sea creature
like a gargantuan whaleand even a kazoo Lou type monster.
In fact, it is the loudest underwaternoise ever recorded.
(03:03):
For comparison, bluewhales, the largest animals on Earth,
can produce calls that carry acrosshundreds of miles.
The bloop dwarfed even that.
Doctor Christopher
Fox, a researcher with the NOAA,famously admitted that he thought
it could be a living animal, yetundiscovered.
Eventually,the consensus has settled on ice quakes
(03:26):
after triangulation of recordingsand other sciencey things.
Ice quakes are massive icebergs
fracturing or groundingagainst the seabed near Antarctica.
The sound profile has matchedthese events, but the bloop scale,
it's overwhelmingreach still leaves some skeptical.
(03:46):
There are conspiracies ofnot just giant sea creatures,
but secret submarinesor other military experiments.
How could ice alone create such resonance?
And why does it trigger our imaginationsso vividly?
Perhaps because we knowmore about the surface of Mars
than the ocean floor.
(04:07):
Number two, the hum.
You may have heard of the Tao some.
Or the Bristol hum.
There's a handful of these phenomenaaround the world towns Bristol,
Windsor, Ontario,just to name a few of these hot spots.
What is it?
First reported in the 1970s, it'sa persistent,
invasive, low frequencyhumming or rumbling sound.
(04:30):
Sometimes described as being likethe idling of a truck engine.
it's frequently worse at night.
And it sounds like it's comingfrom everywhere.
And nowhere.
(05:05):
Each of those recordingsare from a different location,
but you can tell that they all sharesome similar aspects.
And here's what's wonderfully strangeabout this sound.
Not everyone hears it.
In any given location,about 2 to 4% of the population
can perceive the hum for those who do.
It can be unbearable and has causedinsomnia, headaches, nausea, nosebleeds.
(05:29):
There are some vague articles from EnglandI read that say that this sound
has caused at least one suicide, thoughI have not been able to confirm that.
Here's a quote from The Atlantic.
Sufferers known as Hummers have pointedfingers at sources
such as electrical powerlines, wireless communication devices,
(05:51):
and low frequencyelectromagnetic radiation.
For decades, doctorsdismissed patients complaints as tinnitus,
an auditory problemthat affects 15% of people.
But the latest research suggeststhat the noise is not a hallucination,
and that many Hummers do not sufferfrom impaired hearing.
End quote Steve Koolhaas,an engineer from Connecticut,
(06:13):
was so tormentedby the hum that he spent over $30,000
on an investigationand some legal fees because of the hum.
A study in Taos, New Mexico, conductedby Los Alamos National Laboratory,
say that the Hums origin remains a mysteryin most locations.
In some cases, machinery or infrastructure
(06:35):
have been identified and addressed,but in others nothing.
There's no explanation.
Some researcherssuggest the hum could stem
from seismic activityor atmospheric conditions.
Others proposeit could be a product of human sensitivity
to low frequency electromagnetic fields.
(06:55):
I came across some informationabout a small percentage of people
that might be able to have essentiallysuper sensitive hearing.
Being able to hear sounds outsideof our normal range or frequency.
But there's still beenno definitive conclusions on these hums.
And they may all be unrelated.
There could be a variety of causessince all these locations are so far apart
(07:19):
in the world,but it is a very curious thing.
Number three up sweep.
we return to the ocean.
This is another recording from Eno,a captured
from the equatorial autonomous hydrophonearrays.
The up sweep was discoveredwhen the Pacific Marine Environmental
(07:40):
Laboratory beganusing a sound surveillance system in 1991,
and it's a repeating series of narrow
band up,sweeping sounds across the Pacific.
(08:12):
Up sweep is seasonal.
It peaks in the springand autumn of each year.
It's also loud enough to be heardthrough the entire Pacific Ocean.
This pattern suggests it's likely natural.
Another theory is that it's possibleunderwater volcanic activity.
Its source was triangulated to an area
near volcanic seamountsin the south central Pacific.
(08:35):
But the exact causehas never been confirmed.
In a way as proposed,
it could be due to the interactionbetween magma and seawater.
But what's strange about thatis that up sweeps
intensity has been slowlydeclining over the decades.
If this were simply volcanic activity,why this steady fade?
And no direct observations of eruptions
(08:57):
have matched these sounds.
Number four Julia.
In 1999,a mysterious voice emerged from the ocean,
one that sounded disturbingly familiarand lasted
about a minuteand carried a haunting, resonant quality.
NOAA scientists have named it Julia.
(09:32):
Julia's source is
traced to a regionbetween Brandes Fields Strait and Cape
Adare near Antarctica,an area rich with icebergs.
So naturally,the prevailing theory is an enormous
iceberggrounding itself on the ocean floor.
This could produce a long,reverberating cry underwater.
(09:54):
Indeed, Julia's Eventslocation and sound profile
match what would be expectedfrom an iceberg impact.
But the sound?
It's rising, sort of wailing, humanlike pitch invites speculation
and conspiracies that it could besomething beyond our understanding.
Part of the fun of this is thatJulia has only been recorded once,
(10:16):
but that single occurrencewas powerful enough to be heard
across the entire Eastern Pacifichydrophone array.
One recording, one moment
that continues to stir imaginations.
Number five, the slowdown.
I was tempted to combine this with Julia,so maybe I'll call it for a
(10:39):
because it's another underwater mysterywith a similar theory.
It was first recorded on May 19th, 1997,
near the equatorial Pacific region.
The sound is a long, eerie moan
that slowly descends in pitch,
lasting for seven minutes.
(11:17):
To me it
almost sounds like a plane landing,but the name says it all
Its source was pinpointednear the Antarctic Peninsula.
Much like Julia.
The leading theory is that this, too,is the sound of an iceberg
dragging along something like a seabed.
But here's where it's different.
Slow down has been recordedmultiple times each year since 1997.
(11:39):
If it's just ice scraping along rock,why does it occur with such consistency?
Number six the Seneca guns
in 1850.
James Fenimore Cooper,author of The Last of the Mohicans,
wrote a book called The Lake Gun
about a phenomenahe heard at Seneca Lake, New York.
(12:02):
It was a loud,startling boom or explosion,
seemingly coming from the sky,but with no visual phenomena.
He mentioned a deep, hollow,imposing nature,
while emphasizing that it couldn'tbe explained by known natural law.
This sound, or somethingsimilar, has been heard
in many other locations around the globe.
(12:23):
The North Sea, parts of Italy,Bangladesh, Japan,
India,Australia, as well as Canada and Mexico.
These mysterious
sounds are also known as sky quakes,depending on where you are,
(12:44):
and they have been mentionedeven earlier than 1850.
In 1804, the Lewis and Clark Expedition
encountered something bizarre near GreatFalls in Montana.
Meriwether Lewis wrote.
Since our arrival at the falls,we have repeatedly witnessed a noise
which proceeds from a directiona little to the north of west,
(13:05):
as loud and resemblingprecisely the discharge of a piece
of ordinance of 6 poundsat the distance of three miles.
Clark added in his notes a rumbling
like cannon at a greatdistance is heard to the west of us.
The cause we can't account.
I found a recording from Coloradothat seems to be very similar
(13:26):
to these descriptions,and similar to the Lake Seneca Sound.
Here it is.
(13:53):
Scientists have proposed a
range of possible causesmeteors exploding high in the atmosphere,
gas erupting from pockets underground,Distant thunder or lightning generated.
Shock waves funneled over long distances,even big waves
hitting offshore cliffs and making soniclike concussions.
(14:15):
Manmade causeslike sonic booms from aircraft
or secret military testsare also considered in modern accounts.
But here's something interesting.
From that second sound I played.
The video I got that from is captionedthat it sounds right before an earthquake.
And some theories for thesesounds suggest that shallow
earthquakes make booms, earthquake booms,
(14:38):
and that has been consideredfor the sinica guns,
though I also have come across a reportthat contradicts that.
It's from seismologists statingthat these sounds are not seismic events.
Since there are many reportsacross many locations and time,
these events may be due to various causesand they just have a similar sound.
(15:01):
But regardless, it's a major mystery.
Before I move on, I want to mention thata lot of the recordings
I've had to look up for today's episodehave been proven to be hoaxes or fake.
I've only been sharing ones that I thinkare legitimate recordings of these sounds,
but it's been difficultbecause there are a lot of fake ones
(15:23):
online, and people are repurposethose fake ones over and over again
for TikTok or YouTube shorts.
So you have to navigate this subjectvery delicately.
And I mention this nowbecause the sky quake topic,
the Seneca guns herewas particularly difficult, probably
more than the other ones,to find decent recordings.
And I mention this only becauseif you're interested in this topic
(15:46):
and you want to pull upsome YouTube videos or recordings online,
just be careful what you come across.
A lot of people will speed upor slow down these sounds,
which makes it sound like somethingentirely different.
So do with that information, as you will.
Number seven,
I'm turning to a phenomenonthat inspired H.P.
(16:07):
Lovecraft, the Moodys noises.
For centuries,the small town of Moody, Connecticut,
has been plagued by strange and unsettlingsounds.
These noises, often described as a boom
or a slight rumble, can't be explained.
The earliest records dateback to the 17th century, with Native
(16:29):
American tribes referring to the areaas a place of noises.
Colonial settlersalso allegedly documented experiences
describing loud, sudden sounds
that seemed to emanate from the grounditself.
These noises were often accompaniedby a sense of unease.
(17:02):
Early explanations and theories
have ranged from supernatural causesto geological phenomena.
Some believe the sounds werethe work of spirits or demons.
While others have speculatedabout underground caverns collapsing
or volcanic activity.
Seismologists have suggestedthat the sounds could be related to small
(17:22):
earthquakes.
We don't think of Connecticutas having earthquakes, but they do.
They even had one aroundfive on the Richter scale,
just within the last yearor two of my memory serves.
However, the unique characteristicsof the modest noises, such
as their variability and unpredictability,have led some to doubt.
Earthquakes alonecan fully explain the experience.
(17:45):
Another theory involvesthe presence of underground water systems.
It's possible that the movement of waterthrough subterranean channels,
or the collapse of water filled cavities,could produce these strange sounds.
Despite numerous investigations,the exact cause
of the Buddhist noises remains a mystery.
(18:06):
Number eight
of rural sounds.
So we've covered a lot
deep in the ocean today,but now we're looking up to the sky
because our next mystery dealswith the northern and Southern lights.
For centuries, cultures across the ArcticCircle have spoken of faint crackles,
(18:27):
hisses, or even whispers accompanyingthese brilliant displays of light.
But for a long time, scientistsdismissed these claims as folklore.
After allthe auroras occur high in the ionosphere,
far too distant to produce audible sound.
That is, until technology caught up.
(19:08):
Finnish scientists soon to lane recorded
these elusive noisesand has studied them for many years.
he discoveredthat under specific conditions,
the auroras can indeed produce sound,but not from above.
The theory charged particlesfrom the aurora disrupt the electric field
near the surface,causing electrostatic discharges.
(19:31):
Tiny sparksjust a few hundred feet above the Earth.
It's these small bursts of electricitythat create the faint,
popping, hissing, crackling,whisper type sounds
This does require more studyingto fully confirm the theory,
because there are other scientiststhat have different ideas.
Some initially even speculated thatthe sound is actually just an illusion.
(19:54):
It's an eerie experience.
Imagine standing in a frozen, silent fieldbeneath the dancing curtains
of the aurora borealis and hearingstrange sounds that creep me out.
Again, if you have anysounds that I didn't cover earlier today
that really intrigueyou, creep you out, or just fascinate you,
feel free to send me a messageon Instagram or an email.
(20:18):
A study of strange at gmail.com. Com.
Thank you so muchfor listening to the show.
Looking ahead,I have a very fascinating interview
coming up in the next week or twothat you won't want to miss.
So if you're new to
the show, make sure to subscribe,follow, leave a rating and review.
It goes a long way to helping us out,
and you can learnmore at his study of strange.com.
(20:40):
Thank you and good night.
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