Singing Sand Dunes Around the World

clipped from www.nytimes.com Secrets of the Singing Sand Dunes The dunes at Sand Mountain in Nevada sing a note of low C, two octaves below middle C. In the desert of Mar de Dunas in Chile, the dunes sing slightly higher, an F, while the sands of Ghord Lahmar in Morocco are higher yet, a G sharp. At Sand Mountain, for example, dunes can sing slightly different notes at different times, from B to C sharp. The outer layer of the dune vibrates like the cone of a loudspeaker. The particular note depends primarily on the size of the grains. no dune was required at all. The scientists shipped sand from a Moroccan desert to a Paris laboratory and reproduced the singing by pushing the sand around with a metal blade. It’s not at all like any other instrument we know The most beautiful dune tune comes from the sands of Oman. The least musical bits of silicon were those from China, which hardly sang at all.