Singing Icebergs Get Record Deal

April 18, 2008 -- The grinding together of vast Antarctic icebergs in the Ross Sea creates a growling subsonic song that seismologists compare to the ringing of a wine glass.

The newly discovered iceberg song has been detected traveling through the ground and oceans.

The discovery began when seismologists at ocean listening stations as far north as French Polynesia stumbled onto an unexplained, high-frequency tremor signal that lasted anywhere from two minutes to three hours.

"They range from harmonic to chaotic," said geophysicist Rick Aster of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Aster spoke about the discovery Wednesday at the meeting of the Seismological Society of America in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

By combining the data with satellite images, the researchers quickly found the apparent source: a king-sized iceberg called C16.

If the iceberg was in fact making the sounds, the seismologists had three questions: 1) Is the entire iceberg vibrating to make the sound, like a violin? 2) Is the sound caused by fluids surging through cracks or tunnels in the iceberg, like air blown in a flute? 3) Is it something else entirely?