The recent & ongoing tragedy in China is stark reminder that nature will always have the last word in any conversation with humanity. Where I live (Wellington) is known for its earthquakes although most are short & sharp & damage free, but whenever one actually wakes me up I always go & visit this site to see what the quake looked like… and you know, most of them look like sounds I have edited at one time or another – take this example, of readings from multiple sensors:
It would be morbidly interesting to see a waveform of the Sichuan earthquake – both for the initial 2-3 minute earthquake that caused so much damage & deaths… and zoomed out for 313 aftershocks that followed over the next day and night – if anyone happens to find any online I’d appreciate a link… One of the strangest things I’ve seen associated with the quake are these brightly coloured clouds, seen ten minutes before the earthquake, it almost looks like an aurora! More on earthquake lights here and here
Auditory Seismology is a relatively recent addition to the study of earthquakes. “Usually seismic waves have a frequency spectrum below 1 Hz and therefore cases are rare where earthquakes are accompanied by hearable sounds…. if one compresses the time axis of a seismogram by about 2000 times and plays it on a speaker the seismometric record becomes hearable and can be studied by the ear and acoustic criteria…. Philosophical and psychological research results show that there is a substantial difference between seeing and hearing a data set, because both evolve and accentuate different aspects of a phenomenon. From philosophical point of view the eye is good for recognizing structure, surface and steadiness, whereas the ear is good for recognizing time, continuum, remembrance and expectation.”
Sound examples of the devastating 1995 Kobe, Japan earthquake can be heard on the site, firstly the same location, varied using time compression, then the variation of envelope of the earthquake by distance, then similarities between quakes felt over a matter of days but in similar geographic regions, and different responses from the same quake based on physical location ie seismograph was sitting in gravel/bedrock etc. Lastly, audio examples of different kinds of techtonic quakes
