Earth's Magnetic Field Booms Like a Drum, But No One Can Hear It

[Judi Lynn]

By Laura Geggel, Senior Writer | February 12, 2019 10:58am ET

You may not be able to hear it, but Earth's magnetic shield booms like a drum when it's bombarded by strong impulses, including those from solar wind, a new study finds.

Every time an impulse strikes the shield's outer boundary — a region known as the magnetopause — jolts ripple through its surface and then are reflected back once they reach the magnetic poles, just like the face of a drum ripples as a percussionist beats it.

And (drum roll) this is the first time since researchers proposed the magnetopause-is-like-a-drum idea 45 years ago that technology has recorded the phenomenon directly, the researchers said. [What's That Noise? 11 Strange and Mysterious Sounds on Earth and Beyond]

The dayside magnetosphere, the side of the magnetic field directly between the Earth and the sun, is a vast place. It usually extends some 10 times the radius of the Earth toward the sun, or about 41,000 miles (66,000 kilometers), said study lead researcher Martin Archer, a space plasma physicist at Queen Mary University of London.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/64748-earth-magnetic-field-booms-like-drum.html

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Interesting...people around the world have reporting hearing booms and other wierd ...

sounds and the causes have ranged all over the map, but no cause has been firmed identified.

I don't think that this particular geological event is related to these sounds folks have reported hearing in various localities across the world, since the sounds are beyond (this article) human hearing range. Perhaps there are mineral deposits in the earth that cause the sounds (10000 times beneath the range of human hearing according to the article) to become audible. Maybe resonating across crystal formations, etc.?

Thanks Judi Lynn for posting.