Beneath a Sand Dune
1 sound
What does it sound like inside a sand dune? To find out, we buried a pair of microphones within the dunes. Surprisingly, we discovered that there is a rich sound world beneath our feet, owing to the ability of sand to conduct sound over long distances. This is attributable to the small pockets of air trapped between the sound grains, and the fact that the sand is able to vibrate. On this recording, the deep boomy sounds are the footsteps of people walking across the dunes. The sound of your footsteps can travel many meters - try putting your ear to the ground to hear this. Even underground, you can hear the sighing of the wind, which plays a crucial role in the formation and dynamics of sand dunes by moving the grains around. The sand grains themselves make tiny granular sounds as they move, which you can hear on this recording if you listen carefully. Other sounds you can hear are the marram grass stems moving in the breeze, which are also transmitted underground. You can find many things living in the dune underworld, including the roots of plants and the mycelia of specialist fungi that live in sand, together with animals that live in burrows and tunnels, including rabbits, sand lizards, and a diverse array of beetles, bees and wasps.
Photo by Charlotte Brown. Sound by Adrian Newton 2021.
