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Scientists Discover Weird Sounds In Antarctic Ice Shelf (usatoday.com)

pgmrdlm shares a report from USA Today: Using special instruments, scientists have discovered weird sounds at the bottom of the world. The noise is actually vibrating ice, caused by the wind blowing across snow dunes, according to a new study. It's kind of like you're blowing a flute, constantly, on the ice shelf," study lead author Julien Chaput, a geophysicist and mathematician at Colorado State University, said in a statement. Another scientist, glaciologist Douglas MacAyeal of the University of Chicago, likened the sounds to the buzz of thousands of cicadas. The sounds are too low in frequency to be heard by human ears unless sped up by the monitoring equipment. The scientists originally buried 34 seismic sensors under the snow on Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf to study the continent's ice shelves -- not to record the sounds they heard. "Studying the vibrations of an ice shelf's insulating snow jacket could give scientists a sense of how it is responding to changing climate conditions," reports USA Today. "Changes to the ice shelf's 'seismic hum' could also indicate whether cracks in the ice are forming that might indicate whether the ice shelf is susceptible to breaking up."

40 comments

  1. Aliens by pablo_max · · Score: 2, Funny

    I saw a video on youtube which basically proved beyond a doubt that there are a loads of aliens there. Big alien caves and what not. Not sure what they are doing there, I assume that is where they plan their anal probes and cattle mutilations.

    Likely this place has too weird even for them and the noise they hear the aliens startin' up their space ship an melting the ice. So, aliens are also responsible for all the meltin' ice too!!

    1. Re: Aliens by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also, dogs can hear sounds that are beyond natural.

    2. Re: Aliens by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Flat earth society will tell you that's the gateway to hell

      Or Hitler lair

      Alex Jones was right!

    3. Re:Aliens by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      It's where they trade goods with the lizard people living inside our hollow Earth. I thought everyone knew this?

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    4. Re:Aliens by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's where they trade goods with the lizard people living inside our hollow Earth. I thought everyone knew this?

      ... via this staircase ?

  2. Mountains of Madness by Ed+Avis · · Score: 5, Informative

    Sounds to me like "the thin, monotonous whine of blasphemous flutes from inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond Time".

    --
    -- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
    1. Re:Mountains of Madness by Joce640k · · Score: 1

      Nah, it's just walrus farts.

      --
      No sig today...
    2. Re:Mountains of Madness by chrish · · Score: 2

      Tekeli li! Tekeli li!

      The shoggoths are obviously waking up due to the warmth.

      --
      - chrish
    3. Re:Mountains of Madness by painandgreed · · Score: 1

      Sounds to me like "the thin, monotonous whine of blasphemous flutes from inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond Time".

      Came here for the Lovecraftian reference posts. So glad I was rewarded.

    4. Re:Mountains of Madness by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      It's the plague of locusts. They've been waiting in the ice for countless millions of years — waiting for the right moment to wipe out all our food crops and begin the nuclear resource war to end all wars.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    5. Re:Mountains of Madness by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It sort of feels fitting to mention some terrific footage from youtube, consider for example the following documentary: https://youtu.be/QJvW24h3HjY [youtube.com, Sound from the Deep trailer]

      The window! The window!

    6. Re:Mountains of Madness by Ed+Avis · · Score: 1
      --
      -- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
  3. "too low in frequency to be heard by human ears" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    This music is not for our ears.

  4. Well... Who you gonna call? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    When there's something strange...

    1. Re:Well... Who you gonna call? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      lol

  5. Re:Pocahontas' "Native American" DNA crying in pai by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow. Just wow. Wasn't that algorithm retired over a year ago? What's your real name after that delayed reset? Botty McOuttaDate Bot?

  6. but .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    drilling several dozen holes in it doesn't affect it at all.

  7. I be willing to bet by mark_reh · · Score: 3, Interesting

    that if you made recordings anywhere the wind was blowing, and sped them up to a "frequency that we could hear", you'd hear sounds like this. Speeding up the recordings raises the lowest frequency stuff to audible range and pushes the normally audible stuff beyond audible range.

    1. Re:I be willing to bet by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      I wonder what would be the sound of a suitcase full of $20 bills. I just need some funding.

    2. Re:I be willing to bet by mark_reh · · Score: 1

      Probably not nearly as pleasant as the sound of a suitcase full of $100 bills.

  8. Dammit global warming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I buried all of creimer's ebooks and poems in the ice shelf! Now they're fighting to get out!

    1. Re:Dammit global warming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Check out creimer's video channel!

  9. Lovecraft predicted this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    > It's kind of like you're blowing a flute, constantly, on the ice shelf

    Phrased another way, they discovered a thin, monotonous piping coming from Antarctica.

    I'm pretty sure that kind of thing ends with releasing all kinds of Lovecraftian gribblies.

  10. Finale by jbmartin6 · · Score: 1

    And for the crescendo we have The Bloop

    --
    This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
  11. The sounds are Mother Gaia no doubt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Pleading with humanity to save the world by eliminating all artificial forms of carbon production and implementing uncompromising population controls through historic government regulation and zealous enforcement.

    Do I get my 5: Insightful now?

  12. No surprise by gordguide · · Score: 2

    Anyone who has participated in Winter Camping and pitched their tent on a frozen lake will tell you that ice makes weird, other-worldly sounds all the time. For some reason it isn't obvious unless it's very quiet and you're trying to sleep, so daytime forays on the ice won't reveal them to you. So no sound involving ice, Antarctic or otherwise, would surprise me.

  13. Bottom of the world my ass! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The bottom of the world is the Appalachian mountains, with their stupid inbred Hillbillies and Rednecks.

    Don'T call my hemisphere the bottom of the world, although you may call it the bottom of your mother, if you want.

  14. Not everything is global warming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The ice sheets move, we knew this. This causes vibrations in the ice, also not news. These things have nothing to do with global warming so stop bringing it up in every article on natural phenomenon.

    Given that the decades of predictions of doom not happening I find it real hard to believe that global warming is even happening.

    This switch to calling it "climate change" is just one data point on the lie that is global warming. What does CO2 do? It traps heat. Again, not news. If there is more CO2 then it's trappinng more heat, no? So, where is the global warming? The theory is that the atmosphere has reached saturation, meaning more CO2 will not add any significant levels of warming. It's asymptotic, there will be a point on which more CO2 will not add more heat. If we have not reached this point then we will see it soon.

    The debate is not over. New data is showing that the climate models are not accurately predicting the warming. The Antarctic ice sheets were always moving, so recording this movement is not necessarily showing more warming.

    You want clean air? So do I. Let's get some clean air. CO2 is not a pollutant, so stop calling it that. Let's work on reducing tthe real pollutants.

    1. Re:Not everything is global warming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The theory is that the atmosphere has reached saturation, meaning more CO2 will not add any significant levels of warming. It's asymptotic, there will be a point on which more CO2 will not add more heat.

      To the atmosphere, yes. The heat will go into the oceans to be stored and slowly released.

      Enjoy your warm ocean in Blackpool!

  15. It's the unsound by ravenscar · · Score: 1

    Everyone who listens has a maximum of 1 year left after hearing.

  16. Hello? by nanospook · · Score: 1

    I've fallen and I can't get up!

    --
    Have you fscked your local propeller head today?
  17. Ocean Farts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...or alien farts? Take your pick.

  18. Old news by samspock · · Score: 1

    It's just the stargate activating. Nothing to worry about.