The term “Infrasound” is a bit of an anthropocentric misnomer; it refers to sound frequencies below human ability to auditorily distinguish. This doesn’t mean that humans can’t perceive infrasound, it’s just that distinct sounds below a certain frequency may be sensed as beats or flutters.
It is through their meteorological skills that blackpoll warblers can use 200mph (320kph) tailwinds to hurl their tiny little bodies 3.500 km (2,175 miles) over open ocean!
It has been long known that homing pigeons and probably many other migratory birds can hear “infrasound” – sounds at frequencies below human ability to discriminate as pitch. This is how they figure out where they are!
Our previous post about wind farm impacts on marine habitat focused on site survey noise. Once the site is surveyed, site preparation – clearing and grading the seafloor is performed, the masts are built and the turbines are installed. There…
Probably the most fundamental problem with offshore wind is noise (right in our wheelhouse)…
When OCR was founded I was given some wise advice by sacred tree-monkey Julia Butterfly Hill. Hill had become a celebrity on account of her particular act of courage – which she attributed to her deciding what she wanted to…
I want to give a shout out to all of the folks who are sending me links to an ongoing news story about an incessant “pinging noise” up in the Nunavut Arctic areas of the Fury and Hecla Straits (between…
A few years back we worked on a modeling exercise to explore the historic noise levels in the ocean prior to the industrialization of the ocean, which began around the turn of the last century when fossil fuel came…