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A few years ago they drilled for gas a few kilometers outside the city (about 3 km from my house) — this caused a faint humming noise that seemed to come from e

A few years ago they drilled for gas a few kilometers outside the city (about 3 km from my house) — this caused a faint humming noise that seemed to come from everywhere but nowhere in particular. Stand still in a room, hear the noise. Lie down, cover your ears, hear the noise. Put earplugs in, hear the noise. Hugely annoying if you're the kind of person that doesn't sleep well with such nuisances. Boy was I happy when they were done drilling. Most interestingly, just a month ago they finished drilling for gas much more closely, right at the edge of the city, not even a kilometer from my house. I didn't hear anything. My working theory here is that in the former case it was a drilling at a new location, so they must have induced vibrations into the bedrock layers that all the houses here are built on. While in the latter case there was an abandoned operation at the same spot - perhaps they re-used the hole and just drilled it deeper.

m3kw9 9y ago
I double this idea
throwaway613834 9y ago
On the YouTube video it definitely does sound like something strong going on underground... but that's probably a very poor method of assessment.
- bowmessage 9y ago
  The audio on the video was probably added in post...
  - throwaway613834 9y ago
    Could you elaborate on why that is necessarily a problem? Couldn't they have done it losslessly?
    - tempestn 9y ago
      Meaning it's just a rendition of a hum, not an actual recording of "the hum".
      - throwaway613834 9y ago
        > Meaning it's just a rendition of a hum, not an actual recording of "the hum". ...what? Did you not open the link at all? Or are you suggesting they're lying? They literally explicitly say it's an actual recording of the Windsor Hum at 11:12pm on August 24, 2011...
        rainbowmverse 9y ago
        It sounds like any generic dubstep wubbler preset you can download. At least from the few seconds they played it without someone talking over it. Seeing the video does not make me less skeptical. I don't know that they're lying, but I do not have great faith in human perception.
        kalleboo 9y ago
        Listen to the one linked in the article, not the one embedded in the article https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPDILKQjJW8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPDILKQjJW8
        rainbowmverse 9y ago
        It sounds like a bassline in my MDR7506 headphones. I've heard a louder version from neighbors' houses when they were having parties.
        tempestn 9y ago
        I'm not suggesting anything; I'm interpreting the grandparent's comment.
    - dingo_bat 9y ago
      Because it could have been synthesized.
EGreg 9y ago
How does one eliminate the noise? One of those sensory deprivation chambers? Audio insulation?
- blunte 9y ago
  There is nothing to insulate against these large, low frequency waves. They penetrate solid rock. Perhaps enough water could absorb the waves and dissipate them, but that's not really an option.
  - astrodust 9y ago
    When doing laser holography the standard practice is to build a large, heavy bed, like a sturdy wooden frame filled with dry sand, and lay that on top of something that absorbs vibrations like a series of tires and inner tubes. That usually does a good job of sponging up any low-frequency vibrations so long as you don't have any harmonic issues. If you were battling a persistent hum you'd have to engineer the floors in your house to be floating in this fashion, if not the entire house.
  - Johnythree 9y ago
    See my post above on tracking down these sounds, and how a anechoic chamber would actually make it worse. At least in my case.
- ethbro 9y ago
  Active dampening with inverse waveforms? Not sure if commercial headphones would cover the frequency range if it's outside the norm, but Bose et al are great for rhythmic environmental noises.
  - blunte 9y ago
    This is only effective if the microphone and speakers (inverse wave) are where you are... such as on your head. And it depends on the microphone's ability to detect VLF. Even then, the speakers probably don't do well generating 20Hz or lower. To make it even more challenging, because this is a subtle sensitivity issue, and because most of us don't have identical hearing in both ears, you can't just pipe in the same volume of inverse wave to both ears. It's a really hard problem to solve. Plus it's not very comfortable trying to sleep with big headphones on; and nighttime is the worst time for this problem.
mzs 9y ago
Maybe you heard ventilation. It matters where it's pointed and what's in the way more than how close it is.
bonestamp2 9y ago
> perhaps they re-used the hole and just drilled it deeper So many things could be going on underground (types and shapes of materials) that would make your location affected (or not) based on how the waves travel from each location. Maybe you were just better situated to dodge the waves of the second drill, or something didn't match the same acoustic resonance to be a problem.

m3kw9 9y ago

I double this idea

throwaway613834 9y ago

On the YouTube video it definitely does sound like something strong going on underground... but that's probably a very poor method of assessment.

bowmessage 9y ago
The audio on the video was probably added in post...
- throwaway613834 9y ago
  Could you elaborate on why that is necessarily a problem? Couldn't they have done it losslessly?
  - tempestn 9y ago
    Meaning it's just a rendition of a hum, not an actual recording of "the hum".
    - throwaway613834 9y ago
      > Meaning it's just a rendition of a hum, not an actual recording of "the hum". ...what? Did you not open the link at all? Or are you suggesting they're lying? They literally explicitly say it's an actual recording of the Windsor Hum at 11:12pm on August 24, 2011...
      - rainbowmverse 9y ago
        It sounds like any generic dubstep wubbler preset you can download. At least from the few seconds they played it without someone talking over it. Seeing the video does not make me less skeptical. I don't know that they're lying, but I do not have great faith in human perception.
        kalleboo 9y ago
        Listen to the one linked in the article, not the one embedded in the article https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPDILKQjJW8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPDILKQjJW8
        rainbowmverse 9y ago
        It sounds like a bassline in my MDR7506 headphones. I've heard a louder version from neighbors' houses when they were having parties.
      - tempestn 9y ago
        I'm not suggesting anything; I'm interpreting the grandparent's comment.
  - dingo_bat 9y ago
    Because it could have been synthesized.

EGreg 9y ago

How does one eliminate the noise? One of those sensory deprivation chambers? Audio insulation?

blunte 9y ago
There is nothing to insulate against these large, low frequency waves. They penetrate solid rock. Perhaps enough water could absorb the waves and dissipate them, but that's not really an option.
- astrodust 9y ago
  When doing laser holography the standard practice is to build a large, heavy bed, like a sturdy wooden frame filled with dry sand, and lay that on top of something that absorbs vibrations like a series of tires and inner tubes. That usually does a good job of sponging up any low-frequency vibrations so long as you don't have any harmonic issues. If you were battling a persistent hum you'd have to engineer the floors in your house to be floating in this fashion, if not the entire house.
- Johnythree 9y ago
  See my post above on tracking down these sounds, and how a anechoic chamber would actually make it worse. At least in my case.
ethbro 9y ago
Active dampening with inverse waveforms? Not sure if commercial headphones would cover the frequency range if it's outside the norm, but Bose et al are great for rhythmic environmental noises.
- blunte 9y ago
  This is only effective if the microphone and speakers (inverse wave) are where you are... such as on your head. And it depends on the microphone's ability to detect VLF. Even then, the speakers probably don't do well generating 20Hz or lower. To make it even more challenging, because this is a subtle sensitivity issue, and because most of us don't have identical hearing in both ears, you can't just pipe in the same volume of inverse wave to both ears. It's a really hard problem to solve. Plus it's not very comfortable trying to sleep with big headphones on; and nighttime is the worst time for this problem.

mzs 9y ago

Maybe you heard ventilation. It matters where it's pointed and what's in the way more than how close it is.

bonestamp2 9y ago

> perhaps they re-used the hole and just drilled it deeper So many things could be going on underground (types and shapes of materials) that would make your location affected (or not) based on how the waves travel from each location. Maybe you were just better situated to dodge the waves of the second drill, or something didn't match the same acoustic resonance to be a problem.