By Tim Binnall
Researchers studying a massive ice shelf in Antarctica have discovered that snow sitting atop the site emits a near-constant humming sound due to vibrations from the wind. The intriguing observation reportedly came by way of a project which saw nearly three dozen seismic sensors buried in the Ross Ice Shelf, which is the frosty continent's largest such mass of frozen material. An examination of the data yielded the previously-unknown revelation that the ice shelf produces a proverbial 'song' which 'played' continuous over the course of the two years that the sensors were in place.
It was eventually determined that this humming sound was being created when the wind swept over the thick layer of snow sitting on the surface of the ice shelf. Remarkably, researchers also realized that the 'song' would change depending on different environmental conditions, such as storms or air temperature changes. The discovery of the sounds is being heralded as a possible breakthrough when it comes to monitoring the condition of ice shelves which can often collapse with little to no observable signs ahead of time.
For those wondering if the sounds of ice shelves could somehow be connected to the 'mystery hum' phenomenon which has puzzled paranormal researchers for years, it would seem that is probably not be the case. That's because scientists working on the project say that the sounds are actually inaudible to human ears due to their low frequency, but can be picked up by seismic sensors. Be that as it may, one can help but ponder if perhaps a hum produced by vibrating snow could explain some instances of mystery sounds, such as the puzzling case from Sweden that we covered last week.