Posted on 07/24/2005 11:29:40 PM PDT by kingattax
Underwater microphones pick up dull, deadly roar in Indian Ocean----
Sound from last December's huge tsunami-causing earthquake was picked up by underwater microphones designed to listen for nuclear explosions.
Scientists this week released an audio file of the frighteningly long-lasting cracks and splits along the Sumatra-Andaman Fault in the Indian Ocean.
The spine-tingling hiss and rumble is an eerie reminder of the devastation and death that is still being tallied in the largest natural disaster in modern times.
At least 200,000 people are thought to have died as a result of the magnitude-9.3 earthquake, the tsunami, and the lack of food, drinkable water and medical supplies that followed.
The audio recording of the quake starts out silent. A low hiss begins and the intensity builds gradually to a rumbling crescendo. Then it tails off but, frighteningly, builds again in waves as Earth continues to tremble.
The audio file is sped up 10 times to make it easier to hear. As it was recorded, the sound was at the lower threshold of human hearing, but it could have been noted by someone paying attention.
"If you were diving even hundreds of miles away you could hear this," said study leader Maya Tolstoy of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. "You would hear it as sort of a 'boom.'"
An analysis of the recording suggests a new way to monitor earthquakes in near real-time, providing critical information about an earthquake's intensity and potential hazard that could supplement seismograph data, which typically require hours and even days to properly analyze.
A color-coded graph shows the rise and gradual subsidence of underwater sound from the earthquake that touched off an Asian tsunami last December.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Awesome.
That's it?
Couldn't hear a thing.
Interesting post. Eerie indeed - an historical imprint of impending catastrophy...
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