Singing dunes

The sound of the singing Sands of the desert has become part of legends and folklore of many countries, as well as literary works. Usually it goes about it in the legends of evil desert spirits.

The cause of the sound is the friction of grains of sand when driving (wind, compression pressure, landslides).

There are two different mechanism of formation of acoustic sounds when the friction of grains of sand:

• the first is due to compression or shifting sand, which play a short (<1/4 sec) and high-frequency (500-2500 Hz) squeaking or whistling; the sound can be heard on many beaches, shores of lakes and rivers worldwide;
• another mechanism is less common and is caused by changes sandy masses deep in the desert dunes, resulting in a loud low frequency noise (typically 50-300 Hz), which can be compared with the sound of avalanches; the greater the mass of rolling sand, the expressive sound.

Also the appearance of unusual sounds typical for the ice dunes that appear under the influence of strong winds.

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»