by Cynthia McKanzie
January 15, 2020
from MessageToEagle Website


 

Image credit: CNN

The mysterious humming sound has been reported to trouble people worldwide.

The source of the disturbing hum has triggered the curiosity of the scientific community, and researchers say they can explain the origin of this unpleasant and frightening sound.

In May and June, 2018, a series of seismic signals were detected by earthquake monitoring agencies all over the world. Some of the signals lasted up to 20 minutes, and they created a weird humming sound.

These unusual signals promoted scientists to research what was responsible for the sound.

According to a recent study (Drainage of a Deep Magma Reservoir near Mayotte inferred from Seismicity and Deformation), published in Nature Geoscience these signals were a result of the formation of a new underwater volcano.

"We identify about 7,000 volcano-tectonic earthquakes and 407 very-long-period seismic signals.

Early earthquakes migrated upward in response to a magmatic dyke propagating from Moho depth to the surface, whereas later events marked the progressive failure of the roof of a magma reservoir, triggering its resonance," the researchers write in their paper.

These tectonic earthquakes were traced to Mayotte, an island in the Indian Ocean.

The island is and to about 270,000 people, it's the oldest volcanic island in the Comoros Basin grouping between Mozambique and Madagascar.

The volcano erupted last time about 4,000 years ago.

Researchers couldn't see any signs of volcanic activity in this area, but they suspected that magmatic processes may be forming one. Scientists noticed a lowering of the island's surface by seven inches, indicating activity linked to the earthquakes.

According to CNN,

"an oceanographic campaign in May 2019 showed that a volcano had formed in the same spot."

During the formation of the underwater volcano, earthquake activity dropped, and the ground of Mayotte lowered.

Then, the VLP signals (very-long-period seismic signals) began.
 

The new volcano

is off the island of Mayotte

 is in the Indian Ocean.

Credit: Daily Star Post
 

"We interpret this as a sign of the collapse of the deep magma chamber off the coast of Mayotte," said Eleonora Rivalta, study co-author from the German Research Center for Geosciences GFZ.

 

"It is the deepest and largest magma reservoir in the upper mantle to date, which is beginning to empty abruptly."

"Since the seabed lies 3 kilometers below the water surface, almost nobody noticed the enormous eruption," said Torsten Dahm, study co-author and professor of geophysics and seismology at the University of Potsdam in Germany.

 

"However, there are still possible hazards for the island of Mayotte today, as the Earth's crust above the deep reservoir could continue to collapse, triggering stronger earthquakes."

According to Oregon State University, there are over a million underwater volcanoes and only about 75,000 rise over half a mile above the ocean floor.

It's understandable if some of these underwater volcanoes are responsible for the humming sound that has troubled many, and mysterious unexplained sounds coming from the ocean have been reported previously on many occasions.