THE low-frequency rumble of a violent volcanic explosion sounds just like the roar of a jet engine, a similarity which might tells us what’s going on within the fiery mountains.
of the University of California, San Diego, and colleagues measured infrasonic signals from volcanic eruptions around the globe. When they speeded up the frequency of the volcano recordings to within the range of human hearing the distribution of frequencies closely resembled a Boeing 747 jet engine. “The science of jet noise is very well understood,” says Matoza. “If we can understand how this works for volcanoes, we…
