Panic strandings are a slow process of mental pod breakdown or hysteria, and meteor showers seem to be the number one cause of this phenomenon.
Usually, it is simply sheer bad luck, similar to a concussion, of
being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's a trap caused by
land being in the way. In the open sea, whales and dolphins can
maneuver around obstructive noise; however, when land becomes an
obstacle, it results in disaster.
Can meteors produce
sound, and is it possible to hear them?
Meteors and bolides are a captivating
sight, filling us with momentary awe and sometimes temporary shock. These fleeting streaks of light
serve as reminders that numerous small rocky objects and even tinier
icy particles, most no larger than grains of sand, enter Earth's
atmosphere every hour, every day. Most of them burn up in
Earth's atmosphere and never reach its surface. Witnessing them is an
enjoyable and exhilarating experience. But can we also hear meteors?
Sometimes, following a meteor shower, people claim to have heard
meteors as they disintegrate in the atmosphere. Some describe a low
hissing sound, akin to the sizzle of bacon, when witnessing
exceptionally bright meteors. So, what exactly are people hearing? It
turns out these sounds are related to very low-frequency (VLF) radio
waves.
For years, professional
astronomers dismissed the idea of sounds from meteors but that has now changed. Typically, a meteor burns up about 100 km above the Earth's
surface. Sound travels much more slowly than light. Consequently, we
shouldn't be able to hear the rumblings of a particularly large
meteor until several minutes after sighting it. It's analogous to
hearing thunder after the lightning flashes have already occurred.
A meteor soaring 100 km
high produces a boom approximately five minutes after its
appearance—a "sonic" bolide-type explosion. The noise it
generates is reminiscent of the sonic boom produced by an aircraft breaking the sound barrier.
However, some meteors
appear to emit sound simultaneously with their visible presence. Is
this possible? Yes, such meteors are known as electrophonic meteors.
The explanation lies in their emission of very low-frequency (VLF)
radio waves, which travel at the speed of light. While we can't
directly hear radio waves, they can induce vibrations in physical
objects on Earth's surface. These vibrations give rise to a sound
that our ears may perceive as the sizzling sound of a meteor
streaking by. Since VLF waves travel at the speed of light, observers
hear them at the same moment they see the meteors pass overhead. VLF
waves can penetrate seawater to depths of at least 10–40 meters
(30–130 feet), depending on the frequency and water salinity,
making them useful for communicating with submarines.
These observations are
crucial because Black Dolphins exhibit intriguing diving behaviour and
so correspond closely to the sound behaviour of meteors. The dolphins
typically take several breaths before diving for a few minutes, with
feeding dives occasionally extending beyond ten minutes. Although
they can dive as deep as 600 meters, most of their dives occur at
depths of 30–60 meters. Shallow dives typically occur during the
day, while deeper ones take place at night. When conducting deep
dives, pilot whales often sprint to capture
fast-moving prey, such as squid. So most of their behaviour, “relaxed
day zone” is within the realm of the electrophonic meteor.
Electrophonic Fireball
sounds manifest in various forms, including popping, whooshing,
singing, crackling, and sizzling. If pilot whales were subjected to
prolonged exposure to a meteor shower, these sounds could be
disconcerting. Notably, these sounds are usually heard before the
fireballs reach their maximum brightness. Their frequency falls
within the 37 to 44 Hz range, which is near the lower end of the
average person's audible range, typically between 20 to 20,000 Hz. If
you've ever driven at high speed with your back window open, you've
likely encountered a 30-Hz sound.
Interestingly, VLF sounds
detected via their VLF signatures can identify 50 times more meteors
than sight alone. This underscores the significance of these auditory
phenomena in understanding and studying meteors. As stated below and
worth repeating: An average meteor might only have a 25 db sting to
the ears however when you start muliplying this over hundreds and
then thousands over hours and ten of thousands over weeks you can see
how a dolphin with highly tuned echolocation could get incredibly
tormented. One observer counted over 200,000 an hour and another 20 a
second. At 25dp each the calculation is astronomical. Now times this
by 50 and the average dolphin would be in a state of panic whose
measure would be impossible to comprehend.