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‘Shouting’ Sands of LIWA

In Arabic, it is known as ‘za’eeq al raml’, or ‘the shouting sand’ and Marco Polo described it as the sound of “drums and clash of arms”.

The sound, which is produced by walking on the sand, resembles a low flying aircraft. It has for centuries escaped explanation, but one scientist now believes he understands what causes the phenomena. “It is a very impressive sound and one doesn’t understand where it is coming from,” said Professor Stephane Douady, a scientist with French national research agency CNRS.

“It was exciting when we first heard it, not only because of the beauty of the sound and of the phenomena, but because we didn’t have any simple theory to explain where it came from. It was a real mystery.”

He and his team conducted experiments on the sand in his laboratory. At first he believed that the sound was caused by friction between moving grains, but then realised that it couldn’t be true as the sand moved like water.

His team later found that the sand carries a glaze or veneer, without which the sound could not be produced.

However, the phenomenon has lost none of its romantic appeal, and a pair of artists in the UK recently staged an exhibition which featured recorded sounds of the Liwa “singing sands”.

“Earlier descriptions of singing sand often centered on it being created by evil spirits, djinn or other supernatural forces,” said Joe Duffy, from the ‘Birkbeck and Duffy’ collaboration, who work on a number of sound projects using sand.

“The sound of singing sand is not akin to that of a low flying airplane, rumbling slowly but loudly over a distance of up to 10 kilometres in the desert. In that environment when the sand avalanches you are surrounded by this phenomena, immersed by it.

“It is understandable to see that in a world without television, cars, mobile phones, electronic music, the internet, global travel and communications systems that people assumed it was supernatural. They had no way of explaining it or understanding it so it must have been an esoteric experience, terrifying but beautiful.”

Their art installation involved immersing viewers in a 3D recreation of the phenomena with sound and video. “The sound of the singing sand had a fantastic effect on most viewers,” said Duffy. “They felt in part, bewildered, shocked, frightened and mesmerised.”

The phenomenon has been found in 30 sets of dunes in the world, and the sound produced is different in different parts of the world.

According to a scientific journal, the sound has elsewhere been “compared to moans, hums, roars, drums, tambourines, thunder, cannon fire, the rumble of distant carts, foghorns, the buzzing of telegraph wires and the drone of low-flying aircraft”. 
martin@khaleejtimes.com

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