Ghostly sounds of a vibrating Antarctic Ice Shelf

Winds blowing across snow dunes on Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf cause the massive ice slab’s surface to vibrate, producing a near-constant drumroll of seismic “tones” scientists could potentially use to monitor changes in the ice shelf from afar, according to new research. The ice shelf’s “song” is too low in frequency to be heard by human ears, but it has been made audible here by geophysicist and mathematician Julien Chaput, who sped up a 2015 recording of the ice shelf’s vibrations about 1,200 times. See this video featured on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Read more about the Ross Ice Shelf’s song here: And read a new research paper about it here: Image credits: Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego/Matt Siegfried/Momme Hell: Video produced by Lauren Lipuma at AGU.