This recording was made and posted by German composer Andreas Bick at a frozen lake in the Berlin area over the winter of 2005/2006. He explains:
Underwater microphones proved especially well-suited for these recordings: in a small hole drilled close beneath the surface of the water, the sounds emitted by the body of ice carry particularly well. The most striking thing about these recordings is the synthetic-sounding descending tones caused by the phenomenon of the dispersion of sound waves. The high frequencies of the popping and cracking noises are transmitted faster by the ice than the deeper frequencies, which reach the listener with a time lag as glissandi sinking to almost bottomless depths.
[via Boing Boing]
6 thoughts on “Cracking ice sheet sounds like blaster battle”
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This is great. I could listen to this forever.
I wish I lived on a lake. I’d set up a live feed every winter.
WOW! This brought back terrified memories of childhood when this would happen under our feet while ice fishing, skating or just walking across the ice. Although I knew the ice was around a foot thick, once the sound and vibration streaked right at, under, and past me. Even creepier was for my brother who would spend nights sleeping in the ice shack. Imagine waking to that!
Ah, love it! This is a sound of the North. I have a similar memory to craig, my parents had to reassure me that it was nothing to be afraid of. It brought back a flood of memories of crystal clear nights, skating on what seemed like an endless sheet of glass.