HEAR THE SOUNDTRACK OF THE JAPAN SUPER-QUAKE.

In these YouTube videos, the seismic data is also displayed on a graph.

“By combining seismic auditory and visual information, static ‘snapshots’ of earthquake data come to life,” Georgia Tech’s Zhigang Peng and his colleagues write in the March-April edition of Seismological Research Letters. “In addition, this approach allows the audience to relate seismic signals generated by earthquakes to familiar sounds such as thunder, popcorn popping, rattlesnakes, gunshots, firecrackers, etc.”

The researchers say that seismic audifications can make it easier to explain the concept of distant quake triggering to general audiences, and that they also provide a tool for experts to identify and understand such seismic signals in other regions.

Audio at the link.