Odd natural phenomenon

[csprague]

I heard this while going up the Hammond trail on Chocorua yesterday, and had to record it as it was interesting (to me anyway). Basically, it's water running beneath a layer of ice, creating a sound not unlike that of a motor running.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZiAYCctZ4o

Weird!

-csprague

 

[Tom Rankin]

I heard this while going up the Hammond trail on Chocorua yesterday, and had to record it as it was interesting (to me anyway). Basically, it's water running beneath a layer of ice, creating a sound not unlike that of a motor running.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZiAYCctZ4o

Weird!

-csprague

Maybe you discovered a secret underground government installation?!

 

[DougPaul]

One can make fluidic circuits that amplify etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluidics Perhaps the ice and stream bottom combined to make a fluidic oscillator powered by the stream flow. Way back when, I made a fluidic oscillator using tubing, nozzles, etc. (Two fluidic "transistors" cross connected in a multivibrator circuit.)

It could also simply be a low frequency whistle.

I've heard a variety of gurgles etc from stream flow under ice, but this one is new...

Doug

 

[Kevin Rooney]

In my own experience, noise coming from underground seems to have a different quality. That isn't quite the right word, but it's the one that comes to me now. There's a volcanic vent near the summit of Mt Shasta - the one which John Muir used to keep himself and a companion alive during a storm - which few people notice as the steam from it isn't always apparent and the vent itself is about 100 yards from the main route. You can hardly hear any sounds from it until you get quite close - and then, if you stand nearly over it, the roaring sound is intense. Not quite like Niagara Falls, but LOUD!. However, it's almost as though the sound is coming up thru an invisible inverted cone, and you have to be within the cone to hear it. Once in the cone, however, the sound is so loud it makes you jump back. The strong smell of sulphur might have something to do with the sense of caution also

 

[B the Hiker]

I discovered water flowing under the ice the hard way last winter while ice climbing on Pinnacle Gully. I removed an ice screw and found myself being splashed in the face with water flowing out from the hole.

Perversely enough, it was so cold that it froze instantly in the stiff breeze before it could penetrate my layers.

 

[TEO]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZiAYCctZ4o

Very cool! Thanks for recording and sharing it with us.

 

[DougPaul]

I discovered water flowing under the ice the hard way last winter while ice climbing on Pinnacle Gully. I removed an ice screw and found myself being splashed in the face with water flowing out from the hole.

This may be common there--I had a similar occurrence in the "alcove" at the top of the climb. I was pecking a hole to place a screw and got ~12 inch high geyser. I didn't get wet, but my rope was frozen to the ice below... (I was solo, so I cleared it while rapping down to remove my pro.)

Water flowing under climbing ice isn't that uncommon and it can be under pressure. IIRC, there have been accidents when a leader got knocked off by a face full of ice water while placing a pick or screw.

Doug

 

[Lawn Sale]

I discovered water flowing under the ice the hard way last winter while ice climbing on Pinnacle Gully. I removed an ice screw and found myself being splashed in the face with water flowing out from the hole.

This is what killed Ned Green back in 2001 when he was climbing Huntington. The dam let go and he went along with it, having breached it with an ice screw (according to reports, I was not there). I just started climbing back then and remember him at Harvard Cabin. I was shocked to hear about it.