For centuries, the phenomenon of certain desert regions around the world emitting strange sounds resembling music has captivated countless travelers and explorers.
Ancient people believed that these sounds could be the screams of demons from hell or the songs of mermaids luring sailors. However, with modern science, the true origin of these sounds remains an unresolved question.
The Haunting Sounds of the Desert
According to Xinhua News Agency, in 2022, Chinese scientists discovered a desert area emitting a peculiar buzzing sound along the coast of Hainan Province, China. The research team leader, Qu Jianjun, stated: “The discovery of this marvelous natural phenomenon helps fill the gap regarding the unique coastal desert in China. It will support the development and protection of tourism resources on Hainan Island.”
With modern science, the true origin of the sounds in the desert remains an unresolved question.
This is not the first time scientists have explored this mysterious phenomenon of the desert. During his travels, explorer Marco Polo encountered a desert that emitted haunting sounds, which he believed were from “evil desert spirits.” Marco Polo described that “sometimes the air is filled with the sounds of all kinds of instruments, as well as drums and the clashing of various instruments.”
For centuries, scientists have sought various explanations for this phenomenon but have yet to arrive at an official answer. Notably, Charles Darwin could not explain the source of the sounds when he heard them in the Chilean desert.
Experts have named this phenomenon “singing sand.” Singing sand, also known as vibrating sand, whistling sand, or musical sand, refers to areas of sand in deserts or coastal regions that can naturally produce sound in the wind due to a combination of physical characteristics such as the size and composition of sand grains or terrain.
Searching for Answers
To date, researchers estimate that there are about 30 singing deserts worldwide in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. There are various explanations, but generally, they converge on the hypothesis of vibrations occurring beneath the surface of the sand dunes.
In a report recently published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, a scientific team from France has tackled the mystery: how can these singing sand grains produce sound simultaneously?
Scientists conducting experiments on the ‘singing sand’ phenomenon in the laboratory. (Photo: American Geophysical Union)
To answer this question, sound researchers conducted experiments at two different sand dunes: one in the Sahara Desert, southwest Morocco, and the other near Al-Askharah, a coastal town in southeastern Oman, on the Arabian Peninsula. The results showed that in Morocco, many sand areas produced a consistent frequency of 105 Hertz, while in Oman, there were sometimes jarring sounds with fluctuating frequencies ranging from 90 to 150 Hertz. Additionally, while the sand in the Moroccan desert was relatively uniform in size, the sand in Oman was not.
By isolating grains of different sizes and recording the sounds as they moved through the air in the laboratory, scientists concluded that “singing sand” is a phenomenon dependent on the size and movement speed of the sand, meaning grains of different sizes will move at different speeds.
However, they still do not understand how the erratic movements can combine to produce fairly coherent music. The widely accepted hypothesis is that the movement of sand grains occurs simultaneously or oscillates at the same frequency. Thousands of small vibrations combine to easily lead to air disturbances, which then produce sound, as stated by the lead author Simon Dagois-Bohy.
