Dune tunes...the greatest hits
17 September 2005
Zeeya Merali
Magazine issue 2517
Physicists who say they have cracked the riddle
of "singing" sand dunes are compiling a CD of
sand music
IT MIGHT not knock Coldplay or Kanye West off the
top of charts, but physicists who say they have
cracked the riddle of "singing" sand dunes are
compiling a CD of sand music. The team say their
new theory allows them to predict the notes that
different dunes will make.
Sand dunes in certain parts of the world are
notorious for the noises they make as sand
avalanches down their sides. Some emit low
powerful booms, others sound like drum rolls or
galloping horses, and some are even tuneful.
These dune songs have been reported to last for
up to 15 minutes and can sound as loud as a
low-flying aeroplane. Physicists know it is the
avalanches that set the grains humming, but the
precise mechanism has remained controversial (New
Scientist, 18 December 2004, p 8).
St=E9phane Douady of the French national research
agency CNRS and his colleagues shipped sand ...
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