The Hum

The term “The Hum” is frequently used to describe extensive claims of a low-frequency, intrusive, and continuous noise that many people—but not all of them—can hear humming, rumbling, or droning. Worldwide reports of hums have been received, from the US, UK, Australia, and Canada, among other places. They are occasionally called after the place where the issue has received a lot of media attention; examples are the “Taos Hum” in New Mexico and the “Windsor Hum” in Ontario.

It doesn’t seem like there is just one instance of The Hum. Numerous factors have been identified as causes, such as tinnitus symptoms or other biological auditory impacts, as well as nearby mechanical sources, frequently from industrial facilities.

Description

According to a 1973 article, university research examined fifty cases in which persons reported hearing a “low throbbing background noise” that others could not hear. It was discovered that the sound, which consistently peaked at 30 to 40 Hz (hertz), was only audible in cool weather with a gentle breeze and frequently in the early morning. These sounds were frequently limited to a 10-kilometer (6-mile) radius.

Taos Hum

Early in the 1990s, research conducted in Taos, New Mexico, on the Taos Hum found that at least 2% of hearers could detect it at a distinct frequency between 32 and 80 Hz, varied from 0.5 to 2 Hz. A previous British research revealed similar outcomes. One hearer of the Taos Hum said that it may travel up to thirty miles (48 km), suggesting that it may be feasible for hearers to get away from it. The proportions of male and female hearers are almost equal. It seems that age plays a role; those in their middle years are more likely to hear it.

Auckland Hum

A number of recordings that seemed to be the Auckland Hum were recorded in 2006 by Tom Moir, who was then affiliated with Massey University in Auckland, New Zealand. His prior studies with synthetic noises had suggested that the hum was occurring at a frequency of about 56 hertz.

Windsor Hum

Residents of Windsor, Ontario, started complaining about a low, droning vibration in late 2011. At times, the vibration was so strong that it was annoying, and 22,000 people reported it to officials in one evening in 2012. The heavily industrialized Zug Island, located on the north bank of the Detroit River (which divides Windsor and Detroit), was thought to be the source of the sound.

Canadian officials asked the US for help in identifying the source, but government denials of access to the island hindered local authorities. The source could have been a U.S. Steel-operated steel mill, but officials said that no new machinery had been added or turned on at the time the noise started to be heard.

The sounds also vanished in April 2020 as the blast furnaces were turned off.

Other

Germany’s Frankfurt and Darmstadt both recorded hums in 2021. After a year, Darmstadt’s hum was traced back to several malfunctioning heat pumps, two malfunctioning air conditioners, and three structural noise-dampening devices on energy-generating facilities.

There have been reports of hums in St. Louis County, Missouri, and the neighboring areas in 2022.

A hum was detected in Omagh, Northern Ireland, in 2023.

Possible explanations

High-pressure gas pipelines

Steve Kohlhase, an independent mechanical engineer in industrial facilities, spent $30,000 on equipment and legal expenses associated with his study of the low-frequency hum. The subject of Garret Harkawiks’ 2019 documentary Doom Vibrations was Kohlhase’s ten-year investigation into the source of the noise and his hypothesis. According to Kohlhase’s analysis, all incidents that were recorded had sites that were either adjacent to or along high-pressure gas pipes.

Background sounds

In 2009, David Baguley, the head of audiology at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, stated that he thought people’s hum issues were caused by the physical environment roughly one-third of the time and by people paying too much attention to background noises that are harmless the other two-thirds of the time.

For instance, Baguley stated that environmental factors like industrial fans or machinery at a neighboring business might be to blame for the noise. However, he also discovered that most instances are still unsolved. “People say they hear something that most people can’t hear,” Baguley stated, “so I think most people view the hum as a fringe belief.”

However, it’s clear that something is happening based on the large number of people who report hearing it.” Additionally, Baguley proposes that individuals are too sensitive to sound.

Mechanical devices

Given that the hum is frequently described as sounding like a diesel engine, a mechanical source is an apparent choice, although most recorded hums have not been linked to a specific mechanical source.

Regarding Kokomo, Indiana, a heavily industrialized city, the hum was believed to have come from two sources. The first was a 36 Hz tone from the neighboring DaimlerChrysler casting plant’s cooling tower, and the second was a 10 Hz tone from the Haynes International plant’s air compressor intake. Reports of the hum continued, nevertheless, even after those devices were fixed.

There are three hums that have mechanical origins. The source of the West Seattle Hum was identified as a vacuum pump that CalPortland used to remove goods from ships. Reports of the hum stopped when CalPortland changed the machine’s silencers.

Similarly, it’s believed that a visiting ship’s diesel generator caused the Wellington Hum. It is believed that a 35 Hz hum in Windsor, Ontario, came from a steelworks on Zug Island’s industrial zone, which is close to Detroit. Reports of the noise stopping once the U.S. Steel mill there shut down in April 2020 have been made.

The source of a single hum in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, was thought to be a Santee Cooper substation situated over two miles distant from the residence of the couple who initially reported it. The biggest transformer in the state is located in the substation.

A local couple was so disturbed by the hum that they filed a lawsuit against the electricity provider. They thought that part of the reason the hum was louder inside their house than outside was because the 60 Hz hum caused their house to shake in resonance. They stated in the complaint that the couple’s house had hum levels as high as 64.1 dB.

Some scholars hypothesize that the cause of the hum might be the military TACAMO system’s very low-frequency radio waves, which are used by airplanes to communicate with submarines.

Though he points out that there have never been any reports of the Hum around the U.S. Navy’s stationary broadcast stations at Cutler, Maine, and Jim Creek, Washington, David Deming notes that the difficulty in locating a source of the Hum could be attributed to its broadcast from moving aircraft in this fashion.

Deming believes that the Hum “avoids publicity”—it frequently disappears in reaction to a spike in local news coverage—and surmises that this might indicate that the source is man-made.

Tinnitus

Some doctors consider the self-reported auditory system disturbance known as tinnitus as a possible diagnosis in response to complaints regarding the Hum. Without any external stimulation, tinnitus is produced internally by the neurological and auditory systems.

While some speculate that the hum is a type of low-frequency tinnitus, similar to the venous hum, others claim that it is not internal and is worse inside their homes than outside; yet others are adamant that it is unpleasant both inside and out. While some are only aware of the Hum while they are at home, others are always aware of it. Some people who experience it claim that soundproofing—such as double glazing—exacerbates it since it merely reduces outside noise, which highlights the hum.

Spontaneous otoacoustic emissions

The sounds produced by human ears are known as spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAE). 38 to 60 percent of persons with normal hearing have them, according to various studies, however, most are not aware of these noises. When someone does hear these noises, it usually sounds like a slight buzzing, ringing, or hissing (like a Cicada). This is especially true if there is total quiet. Therefore, otoacoustic emissions were taken into consideration by researchers who examined the Taos Hum.

Jet stream

At a 1973 Institute of Biology conference, Philip Dickinson proposed that the 30- to 40-Hz hum might be caused by the jet stream shearing against slower-moving air and possibly amplified by rooms with a corresponding resonant frequency or by power line posts, some of which were shown to vibrate. This proposal was deemed “absolute nonsense” by Chelsea College Acoustics Group member Geoff Leventhall.

Animals

The midshipman fish, sometimes referred to as a toadfish, was one of the several hypothesized sources of the West Seattle Hum. It was found that the male midshipman’s mating call was a prior hum in Sausalito, California, located on the West Coast of the United States.

But in that instance, the hum was permeating the hulls of houseboats and impacting the occupants of those vessels. The researcher from the University of Washington concluded that any resonant hum in the West Seattle instance could not have come from tanker or boat hulls and could not have traveled very far inland, at least not far enough to explain the accounts.

A similar “sonic” fish may be the source of the nighttime humming sound reported near Hythe, Hampshire, according to a hypothesis put up by the Scottish Association for Marine Science. Since these species are uncommon in UK inshore waters, the council thought this to be doubtful. The source remained undiscovered as of February 2014, however the Hythe hum was detected.

Treatment

David Baguley conducted research at the University of Salford’s acoustics lab on the application of psychology and relaxation methods to reduce hum-related anxiety and perhaps quiet down or even eliminate the noise.

Expert in noise and vibration Geoff Leventhall has proposed cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) as a potential treatment for individuals impacted. It all comes down to how comfortable or nervous you are with the loudness. It has been demonstrated that CBT works by assisting individuals in adopting a new perspective.”

In popular culture

The Taos Hum was included in LiveScience’s “Top Ten Unexplained Phenomena” and appeared on the television program Unsolved Mysteries, where it placed tenth. A Hum phenomenon study was broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s fact-based comedy program Punt PI. The Hum was reported by the Norwegian national broadcaster NRK in its Oppdatert podcast in October 2022.

Agent Mulder conjectures that extremely low frequency (ELF) radio waves “may be behind the so-called Taos Hum” in the 1998 episode of The X-Files titled “Drive”.

In a 2018 episode of the police procedural series Criminal Minds, the Hum induces madness in characters, leading them to perform violent crimes. There was “an X-Files feel” to the episode, according to the narrative editors.

In the 2022 episode “Echoes” of the animated series American Dad, Patrick Stewart’s character Avery Bullock reflects on an enigmatic background hum that several individuals mention hearing throughout the show.

The short documentary Zug Island by Nicolas Lachapelle and the song “The Hum” by Canadian singer Dan Griffin both discuss the Windsor Hum.

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