pulse
Palmer Station, Antarctica (seismic station PMSA)

This near-real-time audio stream originates from a seismometer at Palmer Station, Antarctica (IRIS/USGS station PMSA). The low-frequency sounds of the solid Earth have been sped up by a factor of 500× to make them audible. As a result, frequencies have been transposed upward about 9 octaves. Each successive audio program (separated by a brief pause) compresses the last 48 hours into about 6 minutes (exactly 05:45) of listening time.

This station is situated on an island off the coast of West Antarctica, near the Larsen Ice Shelf. Some of the clicking and gurgling sounds you may occasionally hear are unique to this station. Could these sounds, here accelerated several hundredfold, be due to movement of the nearby ice sheet or to icebergs grounding in the surrounding waters?

Archived years:

2025
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2020
2019