Top 10 Incredible Sounds

I've noticed January's flavour of the month seems to be top tens so I thought I would include one too

10. Slow Down



The “Slow Down” is a sound that was first recorded on 29 May 1997, on an autonomous hydrophone array in the Equatorial Pacific, coming from a southerly direction. It lasted about 7 minutes, and has been recorded several times every year since it was first detected. In 2002, it was suggested that the sounds could be caused by the friction of ice in Antarctica moving over the land, as the spectrogram of the sound is very similar to the sound of two objects rubbing together – if you rub your fingers along a table, record the sound, and slow it down (as the scientist who proposed it did) you end up with a strikingly similar sound. However, the matter has not been conclusively settled.

A similar sound is the “Upsweep“, a sound detected between 1991 and 1994, which consists of several consecutive rising sounds. Its cause is also unknown, but it is thought to be caused by some underground volcanic activity, such as the release of underwater gas or lava.

9. Singing Sand



Singing Sand dunes are a phenomenon found in about thirty places around the world. When different layers of sand rub against each other, pushed by the wind, or someone walking on it, it creates a deep booming sound. Ongoing investigations have found that the sound depends on the sand having particular characteristics, such as size and humidity, to make the sound. As a result of different types of sand, different sand dunes produce different notes – Sand Mountain in Nevada gives a low C, Mar de Dunas in Chile gives an F, and the sands of Ghord Lahmar in Morocco give a G sharp.

8. Magnetospheres



The above recording was made on 27 June 1996. It was made by the Galileo spacecraft as it passed Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter. An antenna on the spacecraft was picking up plasma waves, created by the unusually strong magnetosphere of Ganymede (about 3 times stronger Mercury). This was used to create an audio signal (above, the 45 minute signal is compressed into about 60 seconds), where the sound frequency corresponds to the frequency of the waves detected. At about 8 seconds in, Galileo enters the magnetosphere (there is a sudden increase in noise, sounding like a clap of thunder). As the spacecraft passed through the magnetosphere, the noise rose in pitch to peak, then decreased again. The irregularities in the recording, such as the sudden drop in volume at 15 seconds, are caused by irregularities in the magnetosphere of Ganymede as it passes through the influence of the immense magnetic field of Jupiter.

7. Pulsars



In 1967, Jocelyn Burnell discovered a source of pulsed emissions of radio waves which she described as sounding like an “idling truck” on the radio telescope, as it had a frequency of just over 1 Hz, about the same as a large idling diesel engine. A few theories were proposed as to the source of these emissions, including that they were coming from extra-terrestrials, because the pulses were so regular (they are more reliable than atomic clocks), leading to the first pulsar being called LGM-1 (standing for Little Green Men). However in 1968 they were shown to be coming from rotating neutron stars, which only emit radiation along one axis, so we only see the radiation when it points our way. In 1974, Antony Hewish, who had worked with Burnell as her doctoral advisor at the time, received a Nobel Prize for discovering pulsars, while Burnell did not – a decision that received much criticism from fellow scientists. Above is a recording of the Vela Pulsar, a pulsar with a period of 89ms, the shortest known at the time of discovery. The current fastest known pulsar spins once every 1.3ms, so fast that at the equator of the star travels at 24% the speed of light.

6. Lightning Pop



The lightning pop, or pip, or vip, or any number of words that have been used to describe it, is a sound that can be heard preceding the normal thunder associated with a lightning strike. It is heard if you are fairly close to the lightning, and is believed to be caused by an electrical discharge of nearby metal objects as the electric field immediately intensifies with the lightning strike. Above is the only recording I could find with a lightning “pop” – the cameraman was standing near a metal power line (he clearly knows his stuff about lightning), which was possibly where the sound of the discharge came from. It should be noted that the “pop” is not simply an artifact on the microphone, as people report hearing this sound with their own ears.

5. Whistlers



Whistlers are low frequency radio waves that are detected on radio receivers. Lightning strikes create radio waves, which then travel along the earths magnetic field lines through the magnetosphere and ionosphere, meaning they can be detected far away from any actual thunderstorms. In the plasma of the upper atmosphere, higher frequencies of radio waves travel faster, so a receiver will pick up higher frequencies first, followed by lower frequencies in a descending tone. The radio waves occur at frequencies low enough such that they can be converted directly into sound through a speaker, where you can hear the characteristic “whistling” sound. They can be heard almost anywhere in the world. They have also been detected on Jupiter, showing lightning occurs there.

4. Space Dust



The above recording was made by the Voyager 2 on August 26, 1981, as it passed close to Saturn’s rings. How the sound was created is not as complicated as on other entries on this list – dust from the rings was hitting the radio antenna. Still, considering that the sound was made by a tiny probe, traveling at over 35,000 mph, through a ring of dust 144,000km wide and over 1.2 billion km away, it still seems slightly creepy.

3. Sonic Booms



Sonic booms are created as an aircraft breaks the sound barrier, at around 761 mph. As an aircraft travels along, it creates a series of pressure waves in front and behind the aircraft, which themselves travel at the speed of sound. When the aircraft reaches the speed of sound, these pressure waves cannot travel away from each other and collapse into a huge shock wave. This in fact results in two sonic booms – one at the front of the aircraft, and one at the back shortly afterwards. The two sonic booms can be heard quite clearly on the video above. The ThrustSSC, the first car to break the sound barrier, produced a similar double-sonic boom.

2. Ice



On a frozen lake, where the ice is quite thick, disturbances in the ice, such as the ice naturally freezing or moving, create sounds that reverberate to create a very unique sound. The sound can also be created by throwing stones onto a frozen lake. In the video above, if you turn your speakers up, you can hear this sound being produced (it is quite quiet). From further away, a lake that is freezing will sound like it is “singing”, as in this video.

1. Super Lyrebird



The Superb Lyrebird is a songbird found in south-east Australia which impresses females not by creating its own impressive birdsong, as with other birds, but by accurately mimicking the songs of other birds. It has an incredible vocal range, and can mimic the calls of over 20 other birds, which are so accurate even the birds it is impersonating cannot tell the difference. What has made this bird famous, however, is how well it can imitate other sounds it hears, such as car alarms, chainsaws, car engines starting, drills, electric motors, and sometimes human voices. The only other bird to do this is the much rarer Albert’s Lyrebird, also found in south-east Australia. Above is a famous clip of a Superb Lyrebird from the David Attenborough documentary “The Life of Birds”.

Enjoy

Source: listverse.com...

Great thread.

Can I add this one that was posted on ATS a few months ago.

Booming sound from the night sky.

It's never been properly explained afaik

Thanks, haven't heard that one before, did anyone here have any idea what it was?

"The Bloop"

linkaroo

Some people speculate that a living creature made such a sound.

I played the Slowdown and my cat utterly freaked out. Then again, the soudn of typing freaks him out, so...

Biophony has some amazing recordings of natural sounds based on the concept of the "niche hypothesis"

naturalresonancerevolution.blogspot.com...

reply to post by zetamafia911


The Bloop is probably my favorite sound ever. Every few months I'm up late and suddenly start listening to it. It's so creepy.

I'm sorry but the wholesale taking of threads from LISTVERSE has got to stop! In the past few months I've seen over a dozen threads lifted from there. Sure almost all the lists there are cool. so go there.

it seems like people are copying these as a way to get their flag contribution level up or something.

I'm sick and tired of opening up a thread only to see a listverse list.

Mods do you hear me???????

reply to post by Totalstranger



I never heard of LISTVERSE b4. Thx for pointing it out, and I see where your coming from.

reply to post by Totalstranger


hey, i appreciate this thread and any other like it that may be derived from another website. i didn't think ATS was a blog site where original, non-plagiarized content is essential. we are all just sharing interesting things, there are far more irrelevant threads than this.

reply to post by bigyin


is that from the sky though?
i swear i've heard a similar sound before and even around the time that many others in the pac. north west complained of the sound.
very strange, but also impossible to research or pin down the cause of the sound. anyone ever hear any possible explanations for this?

as far as the bloop, i though that experts thought it could not be from a known animal or mammal on earth. isn't the sound much too loud and long to be produced by anything we know?

i know one of the mysterious ocean sounds has been supposedly explained, but the bloop...it is pretty creepy.

The sound of really close lightening is awesome.

Our roof got hit, and the sound was unreal.

Also you could feel the electricity.

We went outside and watched it hitting the paddocks over the back from our place, and when lightening strikes that close it is PINK

Cheers
MM

I know most of you may find this mundane but my favorite sounds are bullfrogs calling and cicadas singing.

reply to post by Totalstranger


I did list the source as listverse so I'm not taking credit for finding these. Thanks double_frick for your input, I totally agree. I found it very interesting when I listened to them, even enough to share here on ATS. Also some of the sounds are related to other threads so it is relevant material.

Nobody is forcing you to read the thread

Miss Megs I hope to experience that myself someday, it sounds amazing!

Originally posted by bigyin
Great thread.

Can I add this one that was posted on ATS a few months ago.

Booming sound from the night sky.

It's never been properly explained afaik

Hi there...don't mean to bump old threads but I need help finding the original discussion on this video. I am the guy who filmed it. Can anyone help?

Originally posted by Broonie
3. Sonic Booms

Sonic booms are created as an aircraft breaks the sound barrier, at around 761 mph. As an aircraft travels along, it creates a series of pressure waves in front and behind the aircraft, which themselves travel at the speed of sound. When the aircraft reaches the speed of sound, these pressure waves cannot travel away from each other and collapse into a huge shock wave. This in fact results in two sonic booms – one at the front of the aircraft, and one at the back shortly afterwards. The two sonic booms can be heard quite clearly on the video above. The ThrustSSC, the first car to break the sound barrier, produced a similar double-sonic boom.

Not exactly correct. Sonic booms are not created as an aircraft "breaks the sound barrier" (there is no barrier, nothing is broken). They are created as long as the object is moving faster than the speed of sound. As you said, this creates a pressure (shock) wave which extends from the object much like the wake of a boat. Like a boat wake, it is a continuous phenomenon but it is only experienced as the shock wave passes over the observer so it appear to last only an instant.

[edit on 2/6/2010 by Phage]

Originally posted by variablecheese

Originally posted by bigyin
Great thread.

Can I add this one that was posted on ATS a few months ago.

Booming sound from the night sky.

It's never been properly explained afaik

Hi there...don't mean to bump old threads but I need help finding the original discussion on this video. I am the guy who filmed it. Can anyone help?

I've tried to find the original thread but can't sorry. But from what I remember there wasn't actually much discussion. After you posted the video there was a few suggestions of what it might be but no definite conclusions. After a while somebody asked if you had heard any further sounds in the area but you never replied.

On my facebook site I have it as my all time favourite Youtube video

I will keep looking for the original thread

Originally posted by bigyin

Originally posted by variablecheese

Originally posted by bigyin
Great thread.

Can I add this one that was posted on ATS a few months ago.

Booming sound from the night sky.

It's never been properly explained afaik

Hi there...don't mean to bump old threads but I need help finding the original discussion on this video. I am the guy who filmed it. Can anyone help?

I've tried to find the original thread but can't sorry. But from what I remember there wasn't actually much discussion. After you posted the video there was a few suggestions of what it might be but no definite conclusions. After a while somebody asked if you had heard any further sounds in the area but you never replied.

On my facebook site I have it as my all time favourite Youtube video

I will keep looking for the original thread

I searched as well but found nothing..hope you have better luck.

Here it is

Whats shaking skies