Strange Sounds
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Info

Geomythology looks to ancient stories for hints of scientific truth

Prof. Timothy John Burbery
The Conversation
Sat, 07 Aug 2021 00:40 UTC
Everyone loves a good story, especially if it's based on something true.

Consider the Greek legend of the Titanomachy, in which the Olympian gods, led by Zeus, vanquish the previous generation of immortals, the Titans. As recounted by the Greek poet Hesiod, this conflict makes for a thrilling tale - and it may preserve kernels of truth.

The eruption around 1650 B.C. of the Thera volcano could have inspired Hesiod's narrative. More powerful than Krakatoa, this ancient cataclysm in the southern Aegean Sea would have been witnessed by anyone living within hundreds of miles of the blast.

Thera Volcano
© Steve Jurvetson, CC BYThe massive eruption of the Thera volcano more than 3,500 years ago left behind a hollowed out island, today known as Santorini.
Historian of science Mott Greene argues that key moments from the Titanomachy map on to the eruption's "signature." For example, Hesiod notes that loud rumbles emanated from the ground as the armies clashed; seismologists now know that harmonic tremors - small earthquakes that sometimes precede eruptions - often produce similar sounds. And the impression of the sky - "wide Heaven" - shaking during the battle could have been inspired by shock waves in the air caused by the volcanic explosion. Hence, the Titanomachy may represent the creative misreading of a natural event.

In 2021 I published the first textbook in the field, Geomythology: How Common Stories Reflect Earth Events. As the book demonstrates, researchers in both the sciences and the humanities practice geomythology. In fact, geomythology's hybrid nature may help to bridge the gap between the two cultures. And despite its orientation toward the past, geomythology might also provide powerful resources for meeting environmental challenges in the future.
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Info

Twelfth century literature and space-age data help map 3,000 years of auroras


National Institute of Polar Research
Mon, 11 Oct 2021 23:47 UTC
Researchers from National Institute of Polar Research and the Institute of Statistical Mathematics published maps indicating how the auroral zone has moved over the last three millennia.
Auroras over the Centuries
© National Institute of Polar ResearchReconstructed auroral zone in 2010 AD (left) and 1200 AD (right).
"The Poetic Edda", an Old Norse collection of poems believed to have been most likely drawn up between 1000 and 1100 AD, contains the gods and giants of ancient Scandinavian lore but lacks perhaps the most magical of real phenomena — auroras. A century later, another Old Norse text, called "The King's Mirror", describes auroras over modern-day Greenland. Around the same time, auroras were witnessed across Japan, including written records of red and white curtain-like lights just north of Kyoto.

Why the discrepancy? Researchers set out to better understand the auroral zone and its movement over the last 3,000 years in an effort to predict how it might change in the future. The team published maps indicating how the auroral zone has moved over the last three millennia on Aug. 20 in the Journal of Space Weather and Space Climate.

"The accurate knowledge of the auroral zone over the past 3,000 years — via worldwide old witness record of auroras, including those even from low-latitude Japan — helps us understand the extreme magnetic storms," said first author Ryuho Kataoka, associate professor at the National Institute of Polar Research.
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Sun

Cooling atmosphere: Sun halos, sun pillars spotted in sky over central Pennsylvania

Christy Shields
WTAJ
Wed, 12 May 2021 21:13 UTC
Sun halos and sun pillars are created from ice crystals in the sky refracting sun light, but the both look different and can form at different times of the day.
Sun pillar in Pennsylvania
© Erin
Sun halos are created when sunlight or moonlight is reflecting off ice crystals in the sky. These crystals will then form a halo around the sun. Most of the ice crystals are found in cirrus clouds or cirrostratus clouds. It usually forms a white circle or even sometimes you will see rainbow colors in the halo.
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Music

Ancient conch makes music for the first time in 17,000 years


Cosmos Magazine
Thu, 11 Feb 2021 01:29 UTC
Drawing of Ancient Conch
© Carole Fritz et al. 2021 / drawing: Gilles ToselloReconstruction of the instrument being played. In the background, a red dotted buffalo decorates the walls of the Marsoulas Cave; similar motifs decorate the instrument.
How old-fashioned is your taste in music? Researchers have recreated notes from a 17,000-year-old conch shell, found in a cave in southern France.

Discovered in the Marsoulas Cave, just north of the Pyrenees mountains, in 1931, the shell was initially thought to be a drinking cup. But a more detailed analysis, published today in the journal Science Advances, showed that the shell had been subtly modified by humans to attach a mouthpiece and use as a musical instrument.

The researchers enlisted the help of a musicologist specialising in wind instruments, who played the instrument in a recording studio. With the mouthpiece of the shell protected to avoid damage to the artefact, the musicologist blew air through the shell in a similar manner to playing trumpet or trombone, which allowed the shell to vibrate at its natural resonance and produce notes. Three distinct tones were recorded, which were similar to the modern notes C, D and C sharp.
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Info

Analysis of gravitational-wave data leads to wealth of discoveries

Lauren Fuge
Cosmos Magazine
Fri, 30 Oct 2020 19:04 UTC
Black Hole Merger
© LIGO/T. PyleAn illustration showing the merger of two black holes and the gravitational waves that ripple outward as the black holes spiral toward each other.
A global network of scientists has completed the first major analysis of gravitational wave data, providing exciting insights into some of the most exotic objects in the Universe.

"We are announcing the discovery of 44 confirmed black hole mergers, which is a more than a four-fold increase in the number of previously known gravitational-wave signals," says Shanika Galaudage from Australia's Monash University, who was part of the research team.

"With so many black holes to study, we can start to answer deep questions about how these systems came to merge."

It's been just five years since physicists shook the scientific world with the long-sought-after detection of gravitational waves. This Nobel Prize-winning feat recorded the ripples in spacetime created by a colossal crash between two orbiting black holes - a phenomenon first predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity.

Since then, detections have generally been announced one by one. But now, as detectors such as the LIGO and Virgo observatories improve, observations have exploded.

"Gravitational-wave astronomy is revolutionary - revealing to us the hidden lives of black holes and neutron stars," says Christopher Berry, co-author and astrophysicist from the University of Glasgow. "In just five years we have gone from not knowing that binary black holes exist to having a catalogue of over 40."

These new detections create a diverse family portrait of black hole binaries, showing that they are stranger and more common than thought, as well as illuminating their origins.
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Cloud Lightning

Red sprites captured in slow motion over Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia in August

Starvisor
YouTube
Sun, 20 Sep 2020 11:50 UTC
sprites
Red sprites captured over the Sverdlovsk oblast in the summer of 2020. The abundance of nighttime thunderstorms this season has made it possible to capture this rare phenomenon in great detail:


00:00 - sprite №1 close-up, real time
00:10 - sprite №1 close-up, speed is slowed down 2 times
00:13 - sprite №1 close-up, speed is slowed down 5 times
00:19 - sprite №1, stack of frames
00:27 - sprite №2 close-up, real time
00:29 - sprite №2 close-up, speed slowed 2 times
00:35 - sprite №2 close-up, speed is 5 times slower
00:39 - sprite №2, stack of frames
00:48 - sprite №3, real time
00:52 - sprite №3 close-up, speed slowed 2 times
00:56 - sprite №3 close-up, speed slowed down 5 times
01:00 - sprite №3, stack of frames
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Attention

Weakening of Earth's magnetic field probed


Sputnik News
Mon, 15 Jun 2020 18:27 UTC
Earth’s magnetic field
© Aubert et al./IPGP/CNRS Photo libraryA simulation of the Earth’s magnetic field.
Geophysicists have been puzzling over a gradual weakening of the Earth's magnetic field in an area stretching from Africa to South America, which has resulted in technical disturbances in satellites orbiting Earth.

Scientists have resorted to data from the European Space Agency's (ESA) Swarm constellation to probe the disturbing weakening of Earth's magnetic field in the area known as the "South Atlantic Anomaly".

Jurgen Matzka, from the German Research Centre for Geosciences, and a team of experts from the Swarm Data, Innovation and Science Cluster (DISC) have been using data from ESA's Swarm satellite constellation to identify and measure the different magnetic signals that comprise Earth's magnetic field.
"The new, eastern minimum of the South Atlantic Anomaly has appeared over the last decade and in recent years is developing vigorously. We are very lucky to have the Swarm satellites in orbit to investigate the development of the South Atlantic Anomaly. The challenge now is to understand the processes in Earth's core driving these changes," said Matzka.
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Moon

Australians report mysterious halo around the moon

Shive Prema
Daily Mail, UK
Thu, 07 May 2020 14:33 UTC
Moon halo over Canberra
© Via FacebookMoon halo seen in Canberra
Australians observed a mysterious halo around the moon on Wednesday night.

People living in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory observed differently sized rings around the moon, which appeared to change depending on where people viewing them lived.

Canberrans reported seeing a ring around the moon while others in the NSW towns of Moss Vale, Callala Bay, Woonona, Camberwarra and Culburra also saw it.

Many people posted pictures of the night sky phenomenon to social media, questioning what exactly had caused the ring to appear.
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Shamrock

Strange sounds heard in the skies of Drogheda, Ireland (again)


Sott.net
Tue, 14 Apr 2020 18:22 UTC
Strange sounds stock
On April 14, 2020, YouTube user 'Merz' recorded strange sounds he heard in the sky over Drogheda, Ireland:


The above clip is his second video of strange sounds. He recorded another event back in March of 2016. He states that the sounds have been heard since that time, but not as hectic:


Comment: Previously: Loud metallic scraping noises heard in Drogheda, Ireland

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Gear

Strange 'metallic' noise heard in Albacete, Spain


Sott.net
Wed, 22 Apr 2020 18:12 UTC
Strange sounds (stock)
On April 22, 2020, YouTuber 'Noel James Riggs' awoke to hear a strange "metallic sounding noise" outside his home in Albacete, Spain. He thought the sounds might have come from construction nearby, but realized it was early Saturday morning and decided to investigate:
Strange "metallic" sounding noise recorded between 6:30 - 7:00 AM on a Saturday morning in Albacete, Spain. The noise was very loud and there was no construction or large machines in the area at the time and this area is not near a factory or train station. These strange sounds can be heard in places all over the world. Sometimes they are called "Sky trumpets" etc. Nobody knows the source of this sound and as far as I know there is no scientific research going on to try and find the source. I had recorded a much longer audio recording with a HQ digital recorder when I decided to go back inside to record a video. This video recording is at the tail end of the phenomenon.

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