Loud noises occur every day. Wincing at the annoyance of a dog bark, or covering your ears as you pass a construction sight is the standard way to guard against the harsh sounds. The pain threshold for humans is 120-130 Decibels. Any sound above 85 dB can cause hearing loss, and the loss is related both to the power of the sound as well as the length of exposure. Here are 10 sounds produced throughout history and how incredibly loud they are. Just remember, human speech is only registered at about 25-35 decibels.
10. Rock Concert/Speakers
A 400,000 Wat rock concert or a similar set of speakers mounted in a vehicle can reach ear-splitting decibel levels. Is it any reason most promoters recommend you wear ear protection to stave off the 135-145 decibel sound waves?
9. Fireworks
Though not typically heard up close, fireworks are still explosions and are very loud. The sound heard from the sky is pretty loud, though not damaging, but at the bursting point the decibel levels reach a staggering 145-150. Even tests are performed under strict sound proofing to avoid any ear injury.
8. Gunfire
Gunfire for anyone unfortunate enough to be standing near it can be quite damaging to the ears registering at a quite loud 145-155 decibels. This is the very reason why you should always wear ear protection when on a firing range.
7. NHRA Dragsters
Sitting next to a dragster as it fires up its engines and screams down the raceway can be more than just loud; it can be damaging to your entire body. At the 155-160 Decibel range not only will it severely to permanently damage your hearing, but it also vibrates your vision and makes it temporarily difficult to swallow. That’s why no one stands next to them.
6. Space Shuttle Launch
When the rockets fire, it is wise and, in fact, fully enforced, that you stand at least a half-mile away lest you get inundated by 165-170 decibels of painful sound. Unlike many other loud noises, the shuttle rocket sound is constant as it creates the thrust necessary to lift it from the ground.
5. The Blue Whale
Blue whales mostly emit very loud, highly structured, repetitive low-frequency rumbling sounds that can travel for many miles underwater. These songs may be used for communicating with other blue whales, especially in order to attract and find mates. The call of the blue whale reaches levels up to 188 decibels. This extraordinarily loud whistle can be heard for hundreds of miles underwater. The whale is the loudest, and, the largest animal on earth.
4. Volcano – Krakatoa
The 1883 the Krakatoa eruption ejected more than 25 cubic kilometres of rock, ash, and pumice and generated the loudest sound historically reported at 180 Decibels: the cataclysmic explosion was distinctly heard as far away as Perth in Australia approx. 1,930 miles (3,110 km), and the island of Rodrigues near Mauritius approx. 3,000 miles (5,000 km).
3. 1-Ton TNT Bomb
Standing as close as 250 feet away from the impact, the resulting explosion from a 1 ton bomb creates a decibel count of 210. Without sufficient hearing protection, not to mention a complete sound-resistant bunker surrounding you, you could quite literally die from the intense vibrations that would literally shake you apart. Unless, of course, you were under the bomb.
2. 5.0 Richter Earth Quake
A sufficient enough quake to rend the ground in twain and destroy buildings, whole rock, and human life reaches a decibel level of 235. If you are caught in the epicenter and are unlucky enough to not be above the ground in a plane or helicopter, the intense noise and vibrations could kill you long before death by any falling object.
1. Tunguska Meteor
The Tunguska event was a massive explosion that occurred near the Podkamennaya (Under Rock) Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai of Russia, at 7:40 AM on June 30, 1908. The explosion was most likely caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet fragment at an altitude of 5 to 10 kilometers (3–6 mi) above Earth’s surface. It was measured with the similar impact of a 1000-Mega-ton bomb with a decibel rating 300-315. This is often considered to be the loudest single-event in history.
Bonus: Lake Taupo Eruption
Lake Taupo is a large lake in the middle of the North Island of New Zealand. The lake is the caldera that resulted from a massive volcanic erruption in 180 AD. It is New Zealand’s largest eruption in 20,000 years. It ejected around 120 cubic kilometers of material, of which 30 cubic kilometers were ejected in the space of a few minutes. It is believed that the eruption column was 50 kilometres high, twice as high as the eruption column from Mount St. Helens in 1980. The resulting ash turned the sky red over Rome and China. This eruption was reportedly heard in China. Lake Taupo today, is one of New Zealand’s popular tourist attractions for its beauty and swimming. The fact that the lake is the largest fresh water lake in Australasia, and approximately the same size as Singapore, ensures it is a huge ‘must do’ component to many tourists.
Tlmabp: Where do you live?
I lived about two miles from the Northridge, CA earthquake in 1994. That was definitely the loudest event I've ever experienced (not to mention terrifying). I'm confused about the information above though, as I've never heard of anyone dying from the vibrations of the earthquake. Or does this mean if you're at the ACTUAL epicenter, underground?
Also, how do they know what the Decibels of the Krakatoa event were? Are they calculated based on how far away the noise is heard?
Just learned this in Physical Geology… The FOCUS is where the earthquake starts (underground), the EPICENTER is the point where the earthquake first reaches the surface of the earth. Like you said, I have never heard of someone dying because of the sound of an earthquake… I have no doubt that it may be loud (worst I have ever been in was a 4.2) but thousands live through earthquakes all the time… And if this were true the Point Loma, or the Northridge earthquakes would have killed thousands or even tens of thousands of people… The numbers just don’t back up what the list is saying.
I still remember my first rock concert, my ears were ringing for days, because we thought it would be cool to stand next to the speakers. It was a small place…..
What about Hillary Clinton?
Now that was just a joke. I’m sure she’s a nice lady.
juggz: jeez – that is my experience after every Saturday night out!
hehe, we just can’t avoid politics
What about the deafening sound of Britney Spears’ life and career imploding? That’s gotta be up there.
list idea…top 10 most annoying noises! like construction noises from the idiots renovating the exterior of your apartment building. i swear there is a portable generator not 10 ft away from me right now. and in the front of the building…OMG! men w/ bandsaws and nailguns. *been like this all damn day…i have such a headache.*
My five year old at 6 am after I have been out drinking can be pretty loud!
Great list. I was surprised how many natural events made the list. Is it true that Krakatoa inspirid the paint The Scream?
I have been to those type of drag races. The jet engine cars sound/feel louder. Any idea about the NASCAR races at Bristol? That track is only about 1/2 mile in length and has 43 unmuffled 750 HP cars.
take it from someone who has suffered from lifelong tinnitus, wear hearing protection whenever you are subject to these noises. i am 29 and already having trouble hearing a lot of things due to the ringing and listening to music and things too loud.
Way cool list – especially about the blue whale. Never would’ve guessed.
@Cyn: How about what Jim Carrey in Dumb & Dumber said the most annoying noise was (when they were riding in the dog-van) – I wish I could type it, but you can’t type a sound like AAAAEEEHHHHAAHHH…well or maybe you can. Hopefully someone knows what I’m talking about so this comment makes sense…
Juggz I have a perm ringing in my right ear because of that, well not the thought it be cool part, it was just the only spot left to stand
I was actually at the launching of the space shuttle a few years ago and I can honestly say, no matter how far away they corral you, it just absolutely vibrates the atmosphere. Stunning. Anyway, I knew that had to go on the list and yeah, Derek, I had NO idea about the whale either. Pretty darn cool.
I spent tuesday night watching TSO (Trans-Syberian Orchestra) It was such an awesome show. 26th row back center. The bloody stack of speakers they had suspended were about the size of a small house. And the lights from every possible angle. But like Jamie…I experience this sort of thing ever friday night. My ears are permenently muffled and have been for a few years. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE…..
You forgot my almost 12 year old daughter whining for an XBox.
“The fact that the lake is the largest fresh water lake in Australia, and approximately the same size as Singapore, ensures it is a huge ‘must do’ component to many tourists.”
Maybe I read it wrong, but last time I checked New Zealand wasn’t part of Australia!
Australaisa.
The continent, not Australia–the country.
”I LOVE LAMP”
” LOUD NOISES”
Well written!
I told my wife that late night after I made chili wouldn’t make the cut…
What about a nuke? The Tsar Bomba was the largest atomic weapon every detonated. I’m sure that was pretty loud. I’m not sure if it was measured, but I’m sure it could be estimated.
talking about earthquakes I felt one yesterday and It lasted for 40 secs, by the time the earthquake started I was in school in a second floor, I was getting ready to jump over to a landscape if thing turned out worst.
Hey am better off with broken bones than dead as I have to play Smash Brawl before I die (REALLY!!).
Ahem, “The fact that the lake is the largest fresh water lake in Australia…”?
Last time I checked, I wasn’t living in Australia, and I mountain bike around the Taupo area all the time
fireworks experience…
Simon: It says “Australasia”
I am a kiwi myself – I would be mortified if I made a mistake like that!
Oh – that last comment applies to Denashi too
20fan20: I have not heard that the scream was inspired by Krakatoa – I will look in to it.
No, actually, I quite clearly see “Australia” not Australasia.
jfrater: Be mortified
I see Australia too!
Okay – you are right – I am mortified
It appears that the entry was edited after I posted it – I have corrected it! ARGH!
Thanks Catriona, FaJu, and the others for pointing it out.
mea culpa
*blushes* er..WordPerfect spell/grammar check kicked it out…so i just thought it was supposed to be Australia. er…i wasn’t even aware there was such a word as Australasia. my apologies.
on the bright side…you can learn stuff at listverse. *sheepish grin*
“The fact that the lake is the largest fresh water lake in Australasia, and approximately the same size as Singapore, ensures it is a huge ‘must do’ component to many tourists.”
OMG! I’m from Singapore and stuff like that just remind me again how puny the country is in size! =O
I am a race fan. While there are lots of loud race cars, your ears have not hurt until you hear the high pitched scream of a formula one car. That is one reason I don’t go to those types of races anymore.
You should add the loudest theoretical possibly sound: 358 dB.
At this Level the airparticles that conduct sound had to be as fast as light. As this is impossible, 358 dB is the maximum for air.
db SPL = 20*log(p1/p0)
p0=0,00002 Pa (this is the usual reference)
p1=Z*V
Z=41,5 g/cm²/s (in german “impedanz”)
V=300.000.000 m/s (lightspeed)
The meteor event that number 1 talks about is so interesting! I have discussed in a couple classes I think. Fascinating. I also had no idea that whales were loud. I think having a horse scream in your ear is pretty loud…and you can hear them from mad far away, haha. Interesting list though…I’m lucky enough to never have heard pretty much all of these but numbers 8, 9, and 10.
Just remember if it hurts your ears it is doing damage. So wear protection!!
Mick: damn good advice, and I say this as the stepson of a professor of audiology. If you’re feeling pain in your ears, it’s because the tiny hairs in the semicircular c*****s of your inner ear, which are vibrated by the sounds picked up by your eardrum and middle-ear bones and which connect to the auditory nerve, are being destroyed by excessive sound pressure. When they’re ruined, your auditory nerves have no way to receive signals from your ear mechanism. And guess what — they don’t grow back.
I myself have some hearing loss right around 1000 Herz, about the upper level of human speech, but so far I don’t have too much trouble, as long as you don’t run water or rustle cellophane while you try to talk to me. I owe it to nearly 25 years of playing in loud bands, mostly as bassplayer but later as a lead guitar player. And at that, I’m doing better than some people. About ten years or so back, I was in a band with a bassplayer who was a total fanatic about John Entwhistle of the Who, and went to see Entwhistle when he played here in Buffalo. He even took along his white Rickenbacker bass for Entwhistle to sign. When the moment came, and my friend was in the Presence, all he could do was stammer and hold out his instrument. Entwhistle stared back at him, perplexed — and then his road manager bent to his ear and yelled full-volume, “HE’D LIKE YOU TO AUTOGRAPH HIS INSTRUMENT, JOHN!” Entwhistle blinked, said, “Oh right, of course,” and quadrupled the value of my friend’s bass then and there. Apparently, that was a lot of what his road manager did: serve as the Ox’s human hearing aid!
Thats a great story Martin!
I know plenty of deaf musicians also. I’ve been playing drums for 11 years now , I got a hearing test done last year and I have near perfect hearing . The guy who tested me couldn’t believe me when I told him I am a drummer!
I owe it to always wearing headphones, and ear plugs when I’m on stage or even at a live gig, nothing worse when after playing or seeing a live band you wake up the next morning with ringing ears. I also teach and always make sure the students I am teaching have ear muffs so they don’t damage their ears.
Also from a documentary in school I watched a few years ago about industrial deafness in the music industry every time you hit the snare drum you lose 0.009% of your earing .
I’m not 100% on the figure anyone read this somewhere as well?
jfrater, now it says Australasia… It’s like calling a Canadian an American. There’s a friendly – if somewhat intense – rivalry between us Kiwis and our slightly retarded friends across the ditch.
Boy, I’m gonna pay for that one
Simon: I am a kiwi too – I am certainly aware of the implications of the typo
Simon and jfrater: if you don’t want the very large freshwater lake, we on the “west” island will very gladly take it for a while because we really need the fresh water. i will need it plonked somewhere between sydney and melbourne thanks. You can keep the earthquakes and volcanic activity though. I also read footrot flats so i can’t be that retarded eh?
And to add to the discussion on sound pressure and to be able to relate decibels to one another, a good rule of thumb for everyone is -
adding 3dB DOUBLES the intensity, and
minussing 3dB HALVES the intensity.
so to compare loudspeakers with fireworks for example, going from 135dB to 150dB, that is a transition of 15 or 3+3+3+3+3 dB
= intensity change of 32 times, ie doubling five times,
which is a fricken lot. Sound pressure levels are funny old things.
Jan: Comment#32: The lightspeed air-particles for the loudest sound, is really curly. (Remember that decibelage as with any intensity level, comes with a stated distance, such as #3 on the list. Since the lightspeed particles can only be just at the source, as the velocity will slow down with distance from source, we probably have seen something approaching lightspeed air particles but i doubt it)
I don’t like the look of the units ie grams/cm^2/second needs to be converted to kg/m^2/second in order to get along with all the other units. the number you came up with is probably true but i just can’t imagine it.
For sound protection, just like with nuclear protection, think:
Time, Distance, and shielding,
and you should be right. Minimise time, maximise distance, and optimize shielding.
Boom. smiley face. thumbs up.
What does the last line in #3 mean?
Does it mean you won;t die from the vibrations if you stand under the bomb?
Aarohan: If you are standing under the bomb, no the vibrations will not kill you. You will be dead long before that due to the intense pressure and tempurature changes (I don’t know what would get you first.)
I know it sounds nitpicky, but according to National Geographic, the loudest sound in the animal kingdom actually belongs to the sperm whale: 230 decibels underwater = roughly 170 on land. Read here for one report: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/11/1103_031103_tvspermwhale.html. If I’m not mistaken, one of the NatGeo/Discovery/BBC documentaries covered this as well, though you’re on your own to track that one down.
A little off-subject, if you’ve never gotten the chance to snorkel or scuba with vocalizing whales, put it on your list immediately! Far from being painful, the sound penetrates every pore of your body – you feel it more than hear it…it’s surreal and astonishing and beautiful…
Anyhow…great list!
Loud noises??? You should have heard my mom after I wrecked her Dodge.
@Hearing loss
The funniest part of hearing loss is an incredibly high risc of getting additional tinnitus!
For the fans of loud music: If you insist in hearing it loud, shorten this exposure and give your ears time to rest, can help a bit.
If you experience temporary ringing in the ear after concerts/club that’s pretty normal, but can lead to tinnitus, if you exaggerate it…
If you’re still not convinced just try to imagine a life without ever beeing able to rest in silence. Never ever silence again! No way back, you will hear that one sound for your whole life! Worth it?
@Barnacle
)
The numbers and units are taken from “Vergleichende Tierphysiologie” from Neuweiler (2003). Although the units seem odd, they fit and are correct. The book is one of the few (translated) german science-books to reach a great number of international readers, and I pretty much trust it (although it’s *****ing complicated and a didactical disaster
That sound loses intensity with distance should be obvious
imagine how loud it was when they blew up that whale on the beach…they used to much dynamite so that adds loudness, and the sound of thousands of huge hunks of whale blubber falling from way up high onto the ground…that must have hurt peoples ears lol
Sarah i’m sorry but your comment was awful… absolutely awful.
Sorry, the loudest thing on Earth is Connie Faulkender. Stupid loud. And stupid. And arrogant, vain, greedy, vulgar, boring, paranoid, defensive, bullying, and she has bad breath. Did I mention she is loud and stupid? She has nothing real to contribute, so if you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle (and highly annoy)them with your (very loud) B.S. Connie, not all of us will miss you. Even some who say they will. They talk about you behind our back, but smile to your face. Bye!
Tunguska = TESLA
Lake Taupo is the most beautiful sight. I recently flew from Rotorua to Wellington, and I have to say that I have never enjoyed flying more. It was a beautiful clear day and seeing the lake from up high, and then flying above Mount Ruapehu (a live volcano next to the lake for those that don’t know) was just incredible. Its times like those that I realise how much I take the beautiful Bay of Plenty for granted.
#11 – all the “people of ethnic origin” in my city that drive around blasting their 18″ subs with as many watts as a small radio station.
hehe this list has really generated some hilarious comments – thanks guys
chwh13: I am looking forward to my holiday in NZ (I leave in 2 weeks!!!) – I will be in Wellington mostly but I would like to do a trip up north if possible.
jfrater: Wellington is an awesome city. I love it. I would definitely suggest coming up north though, the scenery is fantastic. And the South Island is just as good. Think of Lord of the Rings!!! And for extra measure, you can visit White Island off the coast of Whakatane (where I live). Thats another live volcano, you can do walking tours around it. Thats a definite must.
The Guinness World Record for loudest concert is held by the band Manowar.
I’m trying to imagine what an earthquake sounds like. Living in mid-west USA, I’ve never experienced one. Is it the sound of the actual earthquake, or the destruction of objects caused by it?
Comment #44 Jan:
Thanks for the book reference. I am gonna look it up. Sounds interesting.
Hey heres a follow-up to the Tunguska Meteor, i thought it was a nice little read.
http://www.tfot.info/news/1070/in-search-of-the-tunguska-meteorite.html
Juggz: that is very interesting – also interesting is the article they link to at the bottom about a “space disease”: http://www.tfot.info/pod/1010/space-disease-in-peru.html weird.
I always thought of whales to be like babies in a playpin,.
anyway am/was wrong as always
i’m far from being able to recite memory exacts through actual history, but I send out the story of early euro-explorations to the current US, bring their native gifts aboard and setting off cannons and there not being a reaction to the explosive sound because they had neber regerstered such in their livelyhoods.
Which is the loudest… jk
I was at number 5, and was like, “I bet the next one is Krakatoa,” and then I scrolled down, and went “OH! HELL YEAH! I TOTALLY CALLED IT!”
…
…
…and then my brother and his girlfriend looked at me strangely…
*blushes*
Others have said they got tinnitus and hearing loss from loud noises. I got the opposite! I got hyperacusis, an extreme sensitivity to everyday noises. Telephone, doorbell, putting dishes away–all too loud. Words of advice: If something’s too loud, turn it down or get outta town (escape)! Firing guns–with ear protection–turned out to still be too loud for me. I’ve been this way for over three years, the worst of it over the last six months. And I’m only 31. Good news is it’s curable, bad news is I haven’t seen any progress.
Good luck to you all!