The Buzz of Taos – or, in English, “The Taos Hum” – is an alleged low-frequency and very persistent noise perceived especially at night by some inhabitants and visitors of the city of Taos, in New Mexico (USA). Some say that it recalls the sound of a train in the distance or a truck with its diesel engine idling, but in general those who listened to it would not be able to associate it with anything in particular. The noise, which takes its name from Taos because it was heard there for the first time, however manifests itself in the same way in other areas of the world, including Canada, Hawaii, some parts of Europe (for example Russia, Norway and Hungary) and even Australia and Indonesia. For more than 30 years we have been trying to understand where it comes from, but despite a series of hypotheses (from noisy military depots to possible tinnitus), even today no team of scientists has managed to understand it, nor to give it a scientific definition.
What the Taos buzz is and how it is described
The inhabitants of the city of Taos, located on a plateau at 2,124 meters above sea level, have been “living” with this strange phenomenon for about 50 years which shows no signs of stopping, but it is difficult to get used to it. Those who can hear this sound report a sound dull, sharp and intermittent which they couldn’t trace back to anything in particular because they’ve never heard anything similar. However, some have described it as similar to the sound of a train in the distance or a truck with a diesel engine idling. Although this buzz can be heard even during the day, most reports indicate that it is more perceptible than Nightprobably due to the ambient noise it lowers.
The frequency of the noise, between 32 and 80 Hzcaused some of them gods recurring inconveniences such as migraines, epistaxis (nosebleeds), walking and breathing difficulties and even anxiety and panic attacks. Some of the witnesses also stated that this noise led them to insomnia and episodes of severe stress.
A 2008 study regarding this type of phenomenon by the researcher James P. Cowan he stated that buzzes like that of Taos they cannot be detected with standard acoustic instruments and they do not decrease by using ear protection (if you move away from the place where you listen, however, the buzzes are no longer perceived).
It is certainly curious that in all these years, based on evidence collected not only in Taos but also in other areas where the people involved report the same sound and the same symptoms, it is audible to few people.
Studies to understand where this alleged buzz comes from
In 1993 a research team set to work laboratory (run by the government and the US Air Force) to understand where this curious buzz was coming from. The specialists studied the entire area for years, but neither they nor the members of the scientific community who followed them years later in their research ever understood where the bizarre acoustic phenomenon originated.
Some scientists came to a plausible conclusion, and proposed the buzz as the cause military installations in the areain particular the military base “White Sands Missile Range”, which at the time was the main weapons depot in the country (today the largest is the Hawthorne Army Depot, in Nevada), but this did not explain the fact that it was also felt in other areas of the world, and in that case there were no weapons depots nearby. There were those who hypothesized that the cause was noise pollution and geological activities in the area, but here too, the same applies.
There were those who even hypothesized the involvement of the United States Department of Defense. In fact, some believed that the phenomenon could be linked to the radio navigation system Loran-C (Long Range Navigation), a system of low-frequency radio transmissions that could propagate over large distances and which at the time was used for maritime and air navigation, and in particular for submarines. Yes, he understood very quickly that the Loran-C experiments were not the cause, because if the noise had been caused by those transmissions the researchers would have easily identified it with measurements and other tools at their disposal. As you may have understood, however, here too thesis had to be discarded because in the other countries where this phenomenon was revealed, there was no Loran-C infrastructure. Furthermore, it couldn’t be the only cause even in the USA, because the system in question retired in 2010, having become obsolete, but the buzz, unfortunately, didn’t want to end up the same way.
Since it seemed impossible to find the source of the noise, they started jumping out conspiracy theories of all kinds, especially those that had to do with the paranormal and the alien world (there were those who thought it was an extraterrestrial message).
In 2005 a group of scientists hypothesized that it could be a particular one form of tinnitusan ear disorder that affects the auditory tensor muscle causing stiffening of the eardrum. This would explain why so few people hear it in most parts of the globe, but if that were the case, then what would the sensors have detected? audiometric recordings for all these years?
The Frey Effect and microwaves
THE’most accredited hypothesis (although not definitive and incomplete) is that according to which the electromagnetic fields of the area generate auditory sensations in an unconventional way, and was based on a 1962 study by Allan H. Frey. The neuroscientist demonstrated that modulated microwave electromagnetic fields they can be perceived as sounds by some people, even those who are clinically deaf. The phenomenon, known as “Frey effect“, however, occurs without involving the traditional hearing system.
According to Frey’s study, the microwave they interact with the tissues generating small thermal expansions that create sound waves that can be perceived inside the head. This process completely bypasses the ear and the conventional hearing system.
Some research based on the Frey effect in the Taos area has found high levels of electromagnetic fields in some areas (precisely where witnesses perceive the hums), which is why scholars have ended up thinking that the phenomenon could be a case of induced electromagnetic hearing from these conditions. It must also be taken into account that some residents of the area have reported having perceived humming at particular times, such as installations of cell towers, power lines or other devices that emit electromagnetic fieldsproving to be more sensitive to this type of fields.
Although the audible microwave mechanism could (partially) explain the phenomenon, the study paper (ICBEN) concluded that not all perceived hums fit this hypothesis, and that even by eliminating the “plausible” microwave source, the Many people’s symptoms remained the same. Furthermore, it was reiterated that the buzzes could be the result of a combination of factors (low acoustic frequencies, electromagnetic fields and individual sensitivity). In short, the perceived anomalies may not be exclusively of a physical nature, but derive from a complex interaction between environmental and biological factors. The buzz of Taos still remains to be clarifiedand who knows when – and if – we will find out precisely what the cause is!
