Click on the image above to watch Singing Sand. Turn your speakers up… it is hard to hear! |
Eolian Systems: Introduction
The famous explorer, Marco Polo, first heard this unusual sound in the Gobi Desert and thought it was the voice of spirits. Ancient Chinese literature says the sound has divine power. A British explorer, R. A. Bagnold, heard the sound in 1941 in the Saharan Desert and called it the "toiling of underground bells in sand-engulfed monasteries."
The source of the sound is not completely understood even by scientists, but we do know that at only about 35 locations worldwide, huge desert sand dunes "sing." Called "singing sand" or "booming dunes,"" these unusual sand dunes produce a natural sound phenomenon, like a loud, low-pitch rumble or prolonged musical note.
In this section, we will not figure out why the singing sands sing (that has been a mystery for centuries), but you will learn about some of the more explainable features of sand dunes. You will learn how wind creates these spectacular landscape features and about other issues related to wind-dominated environments.
