Pierre Schaeffer, a French composer, once claimed that “sound is the vocabulary of nature.” The loudest noises produced by nature are some of the most potent witnesses to the amazing diversity and history of our world. These are the loudest natural noises that have ever been recorded, ranging from ear-splitting volcanic eruptions to cosmic airbursts.
the 1883 Krakatoa eruption
The Krakatoa eruption in 1883 continues to top the list of loudest noises ever captured. This violent eruption radically reshaped the island where the volcano was located, demolished more than half of it, and produced a new archipelago with numerous additional islands.
The eruption peaked in late August and lasted for five months (May to October). The strongest explosion was more potent than a nuclear weapon, with nearly 200 megatons of TNT being the equivalent.
The eruption triggered tremendous seismic activity, produced 46m tsunami waves, and ejected massive volumes of ash and sulphur 27km into the skies. The volcano’s outburst was reportedly audible from 5,000 kilometres distant. People in Australia and Mauritius, both far away, claimed to have heard it.
It is believed that 36,417 people killed in the explosion, which had a sound level of 230 to 310dB. Over half of my crew had their eardrums broken due to the explosions’ ferocity, according to Captain Sampson of the ship Norham Castle.
In addition, the eruption caused a pressure wave that circled the planet three times, with barographs detecting wild increases in air pressure.
A Bloop
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has dubbed a strange low-frequency noise “The Bloop” as the loudest underwater sound ever captured. The sound was recorded in 1997 off the coast of Chile by the Equatorial Pacific Ocean Autonomous Hydrophone Array. It barely lasted for one minute, yet it covered more than 5,000 kilometres. Numerous conspiracy theories were generated by the peculiar sound.
Some people thought The Bloop was created by a gigantic, unidentified aquatic animal. Others thought the noise may have been made by military action or whales. Oceanographers came to the conclusion that it was probably cryoseism, commonly known as an ice quake. When an iceberg splits in two or when ice slides down a glacier, it causes an ice quake. As a result, sound waves in the water may travel quite far.
The Ross Sea and the Bransfield Straits in Antarctica are where the NOAA thinks the sound came from.
Julia
The Equatorial Pacific Ocean Autonomous Hydrophone Array recorded “Julia” similarly to The Bloop. The sound’s radius was around 5,000 km when it was captured in 1999 near the Pacific coast of South America. But it was more difficult to identify this sound. Listeners have said that the eerie sound resembles an animal’s lonesome wail.
Around the same time, a satellite photograph of a huge, dark monster that appeared to be from NASA began to circulate. Naturally, the photo turned out to be a fake. Despite this, some continued to hold the fabled cryptid, like Cthulhu, to be a real threat.
According to experts, The Bloop and Julia are both ice quakes that originated in the same region.
The “Upsweep,” “Whistle,” “Train,” and “Slow Down” are some more loud noises that hydrophones may pick up. Some of them were also produced by ice quakes, according to researchers.
Tunguska incident
The strongest meteor air burst/impact event ever recorded on Earth occurred in Siberia in 1908. An asteroid of 60 metres in height was destroyed by the Tunguska event, which had a force equivalent to up to 30 megatons of TNT. An agonising, earth-shattering 315dB was produced by the explosion.
Numerous individuals were hurt, property was wrecked, and famously, woods were levelled by the shock wave. Several hundred kilometres away, people could hear and feel the impact. Some people fainted from shock, while others had their hearing permanently damaged.
Witnesses heard a variety of noises as the meteor sped across the sky before exploding, according to eyewitness testimony. S. Semenov, a male, said it felt “as if rocks were falling or cannons were firing.” The Chanyagir Tribe’s Chuchan man recorded several thunderclaps. The 315dB grand finale followed. A gunshot generates about 140dB, which is a lot of noise. Over 300 dB may result in death or lifelong hearing damage!
Chelyabinsk Cosmic Burst
The 9,100-tonne Chelyabinsk meteor passed over southern Ural area of Russia in 2013. The frozen meteorite erupted upon atmospheric entry, producing amazing shockwaves in the vicinity. 500 kilotons of TNT’s worth of energy were released in the explosion, which had a sound pressure level of 180 dB from 4.8 km away.
The occurrence was deemed the strongest infrasound ever recorded by the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation, according to the Daily Mail. The blast’s infrasonic vibrations were detected by sensors in far-off places like Antarctica.
