The Earthsound Project is an ongoing planetary listening experiment that aims to bring the low-frequency natural sounds of Earth into worldwide conscious awareness.

The project began with a single seismometer: a sensitive instrument that detects the Earth's microscopic and inaudible seismic vibrations. Its recorded signals were digitally transposed into audible sound and broadcast to nearby listeners via low-power FM radio and streamed around the world via the Internet.

Since those humble beginnings, many more sensors have since been brought online — seismic, atmospheric, oceanic. The Planetary Sound Machine — the custom software that powers the project — now gathers signals from about two-dozen sensors scattered around the world — from Scotland to Antarctica, from Uganda to Alaska — and streams their sounds in near-real-time via the project’s website for all to hear.

As the project continues to grow, additional sensors of various kinds will be added, further expanding the range, vocabulary, and dialects of the deep. Additional methods will also be developed for distributing the project's audio feeds to listeners around the world and beyond.

These sounds are not for everyone. Nevertheless, there is great beauty here, and I hope that some hardy listeners will find —as I do — some nourishment in exploring our planet's remarkable subaudible acoustic terrain.