The Hum, Hummers and the earthquake connection, by Dr Chris Barnes, Bangor Scientific Consultants, e-mail scienceconsultants@yahoo.co.uk  June 2012

 

Introduction

The Hum is generic term for an annoying, and in some cases magneto-acoustic, low frequency noise phenomenon which plagues an estimated 10% or so of the populous mainly in the ‘Western’ world. Those who hear, or rather perceive, the Hum have been loosely referred to as Hummers.  The classic Hum is described as sounding like a distant, idling and sometimes misfiring engine. The noise is often worse in the dead of night and there are also reports of it peaking according to planetary cycles and the position of the 300mB jet stream.    

 

There have been numerous theories attempting to try and explain the Hum ranging from internal problems such as tinnitus, pulsatile flow and temporal lobe issues to external signal sources. When one considers external signal sources there has been play on everything from infrasonic noise to radio waves and given the geographic locations of early Hum cases there has even been play on conspiracy theories involving secret communication systems and the like. However, as the World has developed it is now clear that the Hum is springing up in parts of the World not directly allied with say Nato or the Western Military and thus we can rule out such causes.

 

Clearly then the Hum is a phenomenon which in its cause is related to infrastructure  but wherein the arrival of the Hum signal also depends on facets as diverse as space and atmospheric physics and the geology of the solid earth.    Some Hum cases have been solved or at least partially solved  these are cases the author refers to as Hum type 1 (ref) and have been found to be caused simply by rather local low frequency noise and infrasound sources, usually more than one in number and emitting more than one acoustic or infrasonic frequency. Only with such conditions can one readily account for two important features of the Hum, i.e. its quasi-periodicity and the fact that it maximises at some locations presumably by constructive interference but not at others. An example of Hum type 1 is the Kokomo Hum. Another case which was solved and provided a full scientific study is found at the following link       http://www.noiseandhealth.org/article.asp?issn=1463-1741;year=2004;volume=7;issue=25;spage=23;epage=28;aulast=feldmann.

 

However for every case that is solved there are probably at least another two Hum cases which are not fully solved.  An example is when the noise source is somewhat more distant, the author calls this Hum type 2.  A possible example of this is the Windsor Hum in Canada. The source is suspected to be Detroit’s industrial artificial Zug Island but the precise source and cause haven’t been found. This is perhaps more like the Hummadruz of the Industrial Revolution?

 

Finally there are Hums which the author refers to as Hum type 3 which are far and above the most interesting and also perplexing. These are Hums which the author believes originates in the World’s electricity generation and distribution industry.  The author’s own home area has its own Hum type 3 which the author will call the Bangor and Anglesey Hum. This Hum began in 2003 with the closure of the Calder Hall nuclear power station. The author has also show it to vary according to whether or not the local pumped storage hydro-plant is pumping (i.e. using) or generating electricity and specifically down to certain specific motor-generator groupings.       

 

What does a power plant emit? The answer is ground borne vibrations and airborne noise.     What do the connected pylons emit?  The answer is the same but additionally magnetic and electromagnetic fields in the same or similar ac frequency range, spanning the sub, inter and multiple harmonics of 50Hz from about 2-2000Hz, a sort of acousto-magnetic comb spectrum.     

 

Why is the Hum getting worse?  Simply that the power density on the World’s power grids is increasing as we become more and more industrialised and there is more and more solid state switch gear and DC injection that accentuates frequencies other than the intended pure synchronous sine wave at 50Hz. 

 

Hummers

Hummers are the group who have to suffer this assault and onslaught which is a by-product of human progress!  There are so few people who have properly researched the Hum like the present author that progress in rectifying our problems has been slow or zero. The author hopes to spread the word to help those afflicted. 

We are condescendingly told we hear the Hum because we have sensitive ears so we should just shut up, grin and bear it or go to relaxation classes. But are there other reasons why we hear the noise?   The present author has suggested sensitisation by pulsed radio systems as a mechanism. If one considers the explosion of cases of Hum in the USA since the introduction of Broadband over power lines it is looking like this hypothesis might be correct. However such Broadband connections also produce current imbalances and altered earth pathways for high frequency harmonics so pulsed radio frequency might only be part of the story.  Is there another cause?

 

  The earthquake connection. 

The author has long since realised that the Bangor Hum seems to get worse just before a major World Earthquake and then diminish for a while afterwards.   Further has advanced theories for this based on stresses in the solid earth altering the propagation of anthropogenic seismic signals.

 

But what if earthquakes sensitised us Hummers to the Hum in the first place? What if the our Hum sensitivity is a Biological or God given defence mechanism to help us survive earthquakes.

 

Certainly the author and his immediate family who all hear the Hum have all been in two earthquakes.  One was magnitude 5.1, the other was magnitude 3.2.   Based on this idea the author decided to survey several more Hummers not known personally to him and not experiencing the Bangor Hum but experiencing Hums elsewhere in the UK.    The results are tabulated below.

 

GENDER

AGE

EQ Y/N

HUM HEARER Y/N

Male

27

y

Y

Female

58

y

y

Male

55

y

y

Female

55

y

y

Female

RNS

Y

Y

Female

RNS

Y

Y

Female

RNS

Y

Y

RNS = Rather not say

As you can see every Hummer interviewed was in an earthquake some time before they started hearing the Hum. 

 

Discussion

It is both highly instructive and exciting to consider that not only does an earthquake have associated with it noise and three dimensional vibration at and below 50Hz but it also has associated electromagnetic changes as pre-cursors, during and after.  For instance the earth’s local magnetic field   can increase markedly before an earthquake. Pre-cursor electrometric signals between .02 and 5 Hz are strongly amplified and the earth’s local electric field can increase or decrease by up to 100 fold depending on which type of sub micron metallic aerosols are emitted from the fracturing rocks together with radon gas.  

 

It is the authors’ hypothesis that once a human being is exposed to these changing frequencies and energy fields thereafter our bio-defence mechanism kicks in and one is forever sensitised.  Sadly the synchronous machines of our power generation system emit similar vibration frequencies with allied phase relationships from  all machines which use this energy and all cables which transport it hence we experience the Hum. 

 

There are very few Hum reports from Japan.  Japan is one of the most seismically active countries in the World thus natural seism signals dominate the ground spectrum.  In the UK, earthquakes are rare so we sensitised Hummers tune in to the second best (or worst as the case may be) thing.    Human and biological systems often employ coherent detection. The Hum appears to be a coherent phenomenon. Whether we like it or not, there is synaesthesia between the acoustic and magnetic signals perceived in Hum type 3 which can only be possible because of the elegant beauty of nature’s design.   Animals too are known to behave strangely before earthquakes, the author wonders if they are distressed by the Hum?  

 

Further work

The author has found a fascinating and unexpected variation of the low frequency ac magnetic field in the whole of the city of Bangor. Corresponding electric field measurements are now in progress.