Photo: Michael Van Woert, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) NESDIS, ORA

are you listening?

a reverse ekphrasis

Kate Roger

Source text:

The Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica has a haunting voice. Winds scouring its chilly snow dunes create waves of surface vibrations; these produce near-nonstop seismic tones that resemble a mournful song, scientists recently discovered.  

While the ice shelf’s “music” is played at a frequency that isn’t audible to human ears, the researchers were able to eavesdrop using seismic sensors, they wrote in a new study.

Weisberger, Mindy. “Shhh … The Ice in Antarctica Is ‘Singing’.” LiveScience, 19 October 2018.