Physics of Booming and Burping Sand Dunes Revealed
Tuesday, October 27, 2015 - 12:00
in Physics & Chemistry
Avalanching sand from dune faces can trigger loud, rumbling "booming" or short bursts of "burping" sounds -- behaving as a perfectly tuned musical instrument. This sound is persistent and the dunes "sing" in frequencies ranging from 70 to 105 Hertz, with higher harmonics. Researchers discovered that the "booming" and "burping" correspond to the transmission of a class of different waves within the dune and report their findings in the journal Physics of Fluids.