February 13, 2019
Red Planet Roundup: March 2019
With two rovers and a lander on the surface of Mars, six spacecraft orbiting above it, and scientists here on Earth studying the Red Planet from …
The EARTH archive
Sound
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11 articles · Page 1 of 1
September 10, 2018
Ecuadorian volcano plays its pipe
An active volcano in central Ecuador may be the largest musical instrument on Earth: After eruptions in 2015, Cotopaxi’s newly configured crater …
August 9, 2017
Why meteors snap, crackle and pop
Keen-eared observers sometimes report hearing popping, whistling or buzzing at the same time they see meteors pass far overhead, a perplexing …
September 21, 2015
Source of Red Sea's mysterious cannon earthquakes revealed
For decades, people living along Egypt’s Red Sea coast have reported hearing loud blasts accompanying the small earthquakes that regularly jolt …
July 17, 2015
A terribly low voice for a new terror bird
A recently discovered fossil skeleton is giving paleontologists a nearly complete look at a new species in the family of big-beaked giants known …
June 1, 2015
Ice (Re) Cap: June 2015
From Antarctica to the Arctic; from polar caps, permafrost and glaciers to ocean-rafted sea ice; and from burly bears to cold-loving microbes, …
April 3, 2015
Of temperature and tone: Has climate shaped human languages?
Humans today speak more than 6,500 languages, and thousands more dialects once spoken have gone extinct. Understanding how and why so many …
January 5, 2012
Putting Earth's history to sound
Geophysicist Dave Engebretson of Western Washington University in Bellingham has struggled with his eyesight since birth. But when his vision …
January 5, 2012
Of sounds and cetaceans: Quieting a noisy underwater world
Marine mammals live in a world of sound. In the open ocean, whales and dolphins depend on sound waves, using echolocation to navigate, find food, …
January 5, 2012
Musical magnetic reversals
Although Earth’s magnetic field currently points toward the North Pole, the planet’s magnetic dipole flips direction every few hundred thousand …
January 5, 2012
Earth tides in A major
Earth experiences small, millimeter-sized tides, called Earth tides. Using a dataset from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California from …