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Listen to the sounds that scientists have discovered near the ice of Antarctica.
USA TODAY & # 39; HUI

Rick Aster, a scientist from Colorado State University, stands on the ice floe of Ross, Antarctica, holding a seismometer that has detected strange noises in the ice.(Photo: Rick Aster)

Everyone is immersed in the strange atmosphere of Halloween, even on the ice in Antarctica.

With the help of special instruments, scientists have discovered strange sounds at the bottom of the world. The noise is actually ice that vibrates, caused by the wind blowing on the snow dunes, according to a new study.

"It's a bit like you're constantly blowing on the ice," said Julien Chaput, senior author of the study, geophysicist and mathematician at Colorado State University, in a statement.

Another scientist, glaciologist Douglas MacAyeal of the University of Chicago, compared the sounds to the animation of thousands of cicadas. The frequency of sounds is too low to be heard by human ears unless accelerated by surveillance equipment.

The initial goal of the study was not to record sounds there, but to research what was happening on the continental ice shelves: in 2014, scientists buried 34 seismic sensors under the snow on the ice platform of Antarctica, Antarctica, in order to monitor its structure and movements.

Ice shelves have thinned and collapsed in Antarctica due to warmer ocean temperatures and air due to climate change. When the plateaus disintegrate, they allow other continental ice to fall into the ocean, thus contributing to the rise in sea level.

Studying the vibrations of the insulating snow jacket of an ice floe could give scientists an idea of ​​how it reacts to climate change, MacAyeal said.

Changes to the "seismic snoring" of the ice could also indicate whether cracks are forming in the ice that may indicate if the ice is likely to break.

"The pack ice reaction tells us that we can follow extremely sensitive details about it," said Chaput. "Basically, what we have in our hands is a tool to monitor the environment, really. And its impact on the pack ice. "

The study was published Tuesday in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.

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