British acoustic engineer Trevor Cox has toured the world for its best sounds. Here are some favorites, starting with singing sand dunes in California's Mojave Desert. When slid on, peculiarities in the sand produce deep parping sounds resembling propeller aircraft or sousaphone accidents. <a href="index.php?page=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sonicwonders.org%2Fbooming-sand-dunes%2F" target="_blank" target="_blank">Hear it here</a>.
Singing sands (California) —
British acoustic engineer Trevor Cox has toured the world for its best sounds. Here are some favorites, starting with singing sand dunes in California's Mojave Desert. When slid on, peculiarities in the sand produce deep parping sounds resembling propeller aircraft or sousaphone accidents. Hear it here.
courtesy Trevor Cox
Bearded seals "don't really sound like animals, they sound like UFOs coming in to land -- they make this extraordinary noise that lasts about a minute," says Trevor Cox. <a href="index.php?page=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sonicwonders.org%2Fbearded-seals-arctic%2F" target="_blank" target="_blank">Hear them here</a>.
Bearded singing seals (Norway) —
Bearded seals "don't really sound like animals, they sound like UFOs coming in to land -- they make this extraordinary noise that lasts about a minute," says Trevor Cox. Hear them here.
Spitsbergen Travel/Hanne Feyling
Clap your hands in front of this 1,100-year-old structure and you'll hear an echo not unlike the sacred quetzal bird. <a href="index.php?page=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sonicwonders.org%2Fel-castillo-chichen-itza-mexico%2F" target="_blank" target="_blank">Hear it here</a>.
Chirping Mayan pyramid (Mexico) —
Clap your hands in front of this 1,100-year-old structure and you'll hear an echo not unlike the sacred quetzal bird. Hear it here.
Ricardo Espinosa/Mexico Tourism Board
Iceland's volcanic landscape is a raging source of unusual sounds, and noxious fumes. <a href="index.php?page=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DxH8CDS_fyDc" target="_blank" target="_blank">Hear Hverir's bubbling mud pots here</a>.
Bubbling mud pots (Iceland) —
Iceland's volcanic landscape is a raging source of unusual sounds, and noxious fumes. Hear Hverir's bubbling mud pots here.
VisitIceland.com
The world's longest echo -- 75 seconds -- has been heard in a vast, empty World War II oil tank built into a Scottish hillside near the town of Invergordon. <a href="index.php?page=&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DUzMSjX7uE10" target="_blank" target="_blank">Hear it here</a>.
World's longest reverberations (Scotland) —
The world's longest echo -- 75 seconds -- has been heard in a vast, empty World War II oil tank built into a Scottish hillside near the town of Invergordon. Hear it here.
courtesy RCAHMS
When cars drive over a series of grooves gouged into a stretch of the westbound Avenue G in Lancaster, California, the "William Tell Overture" -- also known as the "Lone Ranger" theme -- starts to play. <a href="index.php?page=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sonicwonders.org%2Fsinging-roads%2F" target="_blank" target="_blank">Hear it here</a>.
Musical road (California) —
When cars drive over a series of grooves gouged into a stretch of the westbound Avenue G in Lancaster, California, the "William Tell Overture" -- also known as the "Lone Ranger" theme -- starts to play. Hear it here.
courtesy Trevor Cox