Many years ago, the US Navy was planning on using long distance sonar with incomprehensible sound pressure levels. Something like 160 dB. Greenpeace and others tried to stop it, but I doubt they were successful.
I just found a BBC article that states Naval ships' sonar can reach 235 dB!! https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36834457 That's ridiculously loud. 140 dB is like a nearby jet engine or gun shot and causes pain. Since every increase of 10 dB is an increase in the power of the sound by a factor 10, it means naval sonar can be 1,000,000,000 or a billion times more powerful than a nearby jet engine. Insane.
And yes, I too can be disproportionately bent out of shape by leaf blowers.Leaf blowers not only emit unnecessary carbon emissions and destroy habitat for the base of the food chain, but they ruin the peace and quiet.
Good question. I read one research article this morning https://asa.scitation.org/doi/10.1121/10.0002453 that found that wind noise from ONE turbine is typically 10-20 dB lower than ship noise at the same distance. However, the authors caution that because multiple turbines are now being installed, we still need to consider their noise footprint. I didn't dig into any of the details but my instinct is that shipping lanes would be far more destructive for it seems they must form a 1000s of miles long sound barrier that separates different sectors of the ocean, isolating different populations of sea animals.
Many years ago, the US Navy was planning on using long distance sonar with incomprehensible sound pressure levels. Something like 160 dB. Greenpeace and others tried to stop it, but I doubt they were successful.
I just found a BBC article that states Naval ships' sonar can reach 235 dB!! https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36834457 That's ridiculously loud. 140 dB is like a nearby jet engine or gun shot and causes pain. Since every increase of 10 dB is an increase in the power of the sound by a factor 10, it means naval sonar can be 1,000,000,000 or a billion times more powerful than a nearby jet engine. Insane.
And yes, I too can be disproportionately bent out of shape by leaf blowers.Leaf blowers not only emit unnecessary carbon emissions and destroy habitat for the base of the food chain, but they ruin the peace and quiet.
Thanks for your comments Bart. :^)
Good question. I read one research article this morning https://asa.scitation.org/doi/10.1121/10.0002453 that found that wind noise from ONE turbine is typically 10-20 dB lower than ship noise at the same distance. However, the authors caution that because multiple turbines are now being installed, we still need to consider their noise footprint. I didn't dig into any of the details but my instinct is that shipping lanes would be far more destructive for it seems they must form a 1000s of miles long sound barrier that separates different sectors of the ocean, isolating different populations of sea animals.
I hate leaf blowers with a passion that borders on irrational
Interesting post Pru. Have you run across any research on how ocean wind farms affect the underwater noise level?