Acoustic Dispersion

(Volume up.) Nature is SO awesome….

Yesterday was a beautiful near-40 degree day here at the cabin. And gratefully that warm sunny day created conditions for one of the most amazing things we’ve ever heard. At sun down, as the temperature dropped, the lake started to “sing.” Or maybe more accurately, it engaged in an underwater light-saber sonar battle. As we learned, the sound is officially called “acoustic dispersion,” and is sometimes heard as freezing lakes expand and contract.

Ray had been sitting outside, tending our post-dinner evening fire, and heard it first. But we all made a bee-line to the lake. The sound was almost other-worldly, and nothing like we’d ever heard before. It would start at one part of the lake, and would swirl and expand and end in another spot. With the louder sounds, you could even feel the vibration. And even better, to be standing there at the lake shore, on a crisp night under a near-full moon, with all of us in complete and utter awe….well, it’s something I won’t ever forget.

The sounds were loudest and most frequent as the sun first went down, with an echo every 5 to 10 seconds, but we could still hear it hours later too. I tried to capture the sound on my iPhone, but with little success. So this video doesn’t do it justice at all, but I at least wanted to keep the memory. (If you hold the speaker to your ear, you can hear it a little more. Even better, put earbuds on. It is much louder and you can get a feel for how the sound traveled from one spot to another.)

This was truly unforgettable for all of us!!