Can You Hear A Hum? | Earth Science

Credits
Journalist - Linda Geddes
Video, Graphics & Edit - Adam Proctor
Thanks to - Jake Cole, James Dunne, Tim Husband, Glen MacPherson, Rosemarie Mann, Andy Moorhouse.
Images - 'Somatosound' - Wellcome Images. 'Speaker' Donald Tong

Welcome to BBC Earth Science!

[moritzkooistra]

For 2 years I've been hearing this humming sound. I'm sort of glad to discover that I'm not the only one.

[nashmanzl]

I am in Castle Rock CO. I can hear it night and day. I go to job sites away from city areas, and if I go to the bathroom, or sit in my car, there it is. I am a musician. I can hear "it's" mechanical pace. It's a single unit machine, not a collection of industrial hoo-haa. It can be heard everywhere. This thing is HUGE! And it's underground, either in a concrete room, or direct anchor to the earth somehow. It resonates through the entire planet. I'm freaking out because I guarantee you someone knows what this is, and it ain't no good thing.

[DanManThePurple]

0:47 I really doubt that was your nickname ever

[discohospital]

Grew up 10 miles south of Bristol, and heard it all through my childhood during the night. It’s external, it’s omnipresent and it’s intense.

[Godshole]

I have been hearing this on and off for over 25 years. It is NOT electrical. I used to live in the middle of nowhere north of Ullapool Scotland and it drove me mental at times, even when there were power cuts and in winter that was fairly regular. Visitors would comment on it. It seemed to be dependent on wind direction, N.E. or no wind and it was, and still is more a constant low low 'feeling' sound. I live now in West Yorkshire near a big city and at times I can still hear it. It is real.

P.S. I have tinnitus. I know what tinnitus is. I know what my tinnitus does. The hum is NOT tinnitus.

[mysteriousvideomaker]

"electro hypersensitive girl". when your husband is trying wind you up, but he is also a super scientist.

[nikeish]

Just woke up at 1am to this humming sound so I YouTubed it.

[adammuncy]

I've heard it off and on since I was a kid, I'm 37 now. In fact I'm hearing it now. The first time I noticed it I was reading in my bed. Just like they said, it sounds almost like a distant diesel engine, but not quite. Growing up we lived in the country and our road was seldom traveled. Anyway, I poked my head outside and never saw a truck. It comes and goes. You hear it most often when you're inside, but not always. Since there is more background noise outside it tends to drown it out. It doesn't matter if the master breaker is off, I'll still hear it. Anyway, those of you who also hear it, you're not alone.

P.S., I'm in Missouri, USA, not Bristol.

[SkyTechElectronics]

"... it isn't something I should fear, it's something I should embrace."
This totally doesn't sound like propaganda.

[Bogbogz]

I hear this some times. It souds like the heating turning on or a freezer humming, but you can hear it all over the house. Don't live in Bristal.

[MarkJones-lgvt]

I've heard it for years in 3 different states. Tennessee, New York and now Maine. I hear it at all hours of the day. I've had hearing tests but nothing out of the ordinary was found. I think it's something greater than we understand.

[Phuketwordsbrother]

I used to hear the hum as a kid Living in Thornbury North of Bristol. I always assumed it was traffic way off in the distance. I would be able to hear It exceptionally well on cool Misty mornings. I'm sure I used to ask my parents what it was. But I'm not too sure if they knew what I was on about. When I try to recreate the sound I think it could be somewhere around 130 Hz But then again, you can hear so much better as a child. I'm Fifty years old now.

[keithclements]

I have been hearing it since the 1970s like a loud hum coming from deep in the ground from London to Suffolk and Spain 5 years ago I drove my neighbours crazy as I could feel the vibrating through the building I lived in and the other day it started again....Not Tinnitus as I hear that within me this hum is at a distance...or below me totally different...No one else hears it!

[jannettb]

My house thrums sometimes. It makes my skin crawl and my muscles start getting tight and twitch. My head feels like it is expanding and it gets to where I feel like I can't breath right. My ribs start to hurt. It feels like impending doom. My partner doesn't feel or hear it until it gets strong enough that it actually vibrates the bed at night. Sometimes it gets to the point the bed shakes, like a washer in the next room, or the cat scratching itself on the end of the bed. Mostly at night, but sometimes during the day as well. I have lived next to railroads, power substations, mills, highways. I've never had this happen before I moved into this house almost exactly a year ago.

Edit: I've had tinnitus all my life, it's never shook my bed like this. I've lived in several different houses in this same town over the last 18 years, even a few blocks down the road, never had this. I'm from the coast originally, never had this. The lady reporting this saying it's something she should embrace makes me angry because she obviously doesn't know what people go through with this

[jamessmith]

I've heard this before it drove me mad. it went on for a few months, I live in maidehead. it was day and night, at night I left my house and left the front door open and walked away from then house, then the sound left, as I walked back near the house you could hear it. my mum came back from holiday and I left the house back to mine. and she could hear it too.

[davelowe]

This happens to me but I'm in sheffield and it sounds like it's coming from the sky

[ybra]

People that can hear it should start recording the exact times they do hear it. That way you could later compare the notes. If it's an outside phenomena you would see the times lines up but if it's just an individual thing, tinnitus or alike the times would just be random.

I have had this myself from time to time, I could only hear it with one ear which would lead me to think it's just something wrong with my ear. But it also changes depending on what room I'm in which leads me to think that there really is a noise... Drives me nuts that figure out where it is coming from.

[Camila-epko]

I heard it once in the middle of my english class in middle school. I was sitting there with another student next to me and we both look at each other and looked outside and then you the rest of the class nobody else seemed to be bothered by it. At the time I just brushed it off and so did the other student but then when I got home I opened youtube and guess what the second video that was recommended to me was.. a video about this weird humming.

[Petch]

I've hear the hum, Nottingham, UK, for around 8 years now, only at night or early morning, it doesn't stop me sleeping and i can generally zone it out sometimes as you just get used to it, but it can louder and more intense occasionally. Lived in four different properties still hear it. It feels like it's external, but could be internal. Never hear it when I'm outside. Annoying not knowing what it is, but was comforting to know it's not just me.

[crawfordbrown]

I live about 10-15 miles out from Largs, Scotland and me and my mother have experienced this at night time, stopping us from sleeping. I haven't heard it in a while but whenever we hear it, we hear it together (ruling out tinitus etc)