Earth is actually going to play 'rock' music, there'll even be a concert

Geologists are 'rockstars', a little removed from their guitar-strumming, long-haired counterparts,but with much more intimate knowledge about the literal 'rock' part of the business. Geologists may not leadcrowds indoing a nice head-bang but now a crossover between these (very) dissimilar fields may be on the horizon. Scientists are going to make 'rock' music. And Earth is the artist.

This 'concert' will involve seismic waves headlining a live flute performance. This wonderfulexperiment is slated to take place on Tuesday (May 9). Dr Domenico Vicinanza of the UK's Anglia Ruskin University will reportedly use a computer programme he developed to turn real-time seismic data into a musical score. The data recorded will be taken from a seismograph at Yellowstone National Park in the US. The seismic data will be turned into a musical score.

“I am essentially mapping the [amplitude of the] vibrations and the oscillations to [notes],” he said as quoted by The Guardian.

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The musical score generated by the computer programme will be played live on stage by Dr Alyssa Schwartz who is a visiting assistant professor of flute and musicology at Fairmont State University.

This experiment is being carried out as part of the 2023Internet2 Community Exchange conference in Atlanta, Georgia.

So, how will seismic activity, usually a bad thing for anyone living in the area, produce music?

Yellowstone National Park is a volcanic zone. As the amplitude of the volcanic activity vibrations increases, the musical notes will as well. If the seismograph data shows dramatic oscillations, they will reflect in the musical melody.

"I’m pretty sure I am going to get something that is interesting because you always have some sort of [seismic] activity [at Yellowstone],” said Dr Vicinanza as quoted by The Guardian.

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“Nearly 50 per centof the earthquakes occur in swarms that cluster together,” said Vicinanza, “So it’s a fantastic playground for any kind of scientist that is interested in seismology, geophysics, mechanics or, like me, data science and music, because it’s very unique.”

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Vicinanza himself is a composer, physicist and researcher in auditory display. He has dabbled in such experiments in past. Previously, he used 37 years' worth of data collected by humanity's farthest-travelling spacecraft, Voyager 1 and 2, to create a music piece.

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