After listening to the musical stylings of both volcanoes (click the pix to hear for yourself) I called in my vote for Tungurahua…
Active volcanoes are being made to “sing” by researchers who convert seismic data into frequencies audible to human ears. Although the volcanoes are unlikely to sell many records, the technique could make it easier to detect patterns that warn of an eruption.
High-powered computers are being used to convert seismic readings from Mount Etna in Sicily and Tungurahua in Ecuador into audible rumbles, roars, beeps, and even piano music.
The technique, known as “sonification”, is used to help people detect patterns in complex data. Research has shown that people find it easier to detect patterns audibly rather than visually. While the eye can quickly become confused by visual representations of very complex data, the ear is very good at sorting patterns from random noise.
“The human ear is a logorithmic device. It’s much more sensitive than the human eye,” says Roberto Barbera, a physicist at the University of Catania in Italy. “We can figure things out that we couldn’t otherwise.” Barbera and colleagues at the University of Salerno, Italy, have been working at sonifying the data from Mount Etna, one of the most active volcanoes in the world. Recently they added information from the Ecuadorian volcano.
So which do you prefer? Mt. Etna’s first, then sweetly melodic Tungurahua….ahhh, the music of conic sections….
I’ve got to pick Etna. The slightly frenetic pace makes me think of one of my favorite classical albums Gustav Holst’s The Planets. There is also something that is quite reminiscent of the alien sounds in Close Encounters of the Third Kind