The Taos Hum

Taos is a sleepy town in New Mexico that, in the winter serves as a skiing community.  However, there is another reason that Toas is famous and it's a reason that has been documented but never explained.

It's a low-frequency hum that seems to emanate from everywhere.   Not everyone in the town can hear it, but a large portion of residents and visitors can.  It's been said that two percent of people can perceive the incessant low tone.

First reported around 1990, the hum is on the threshold of human hearing - from about 20 to 20,000 hertz or cycles per second. Acoustic investigations have concentrated on low - frequency sounds between 33 and 80 hertz, but have failed to pinpoint the source of the strange sound. The sound has been described as low, grinding and pulsating, like a diesel truck idling in the distance.

So what could it be?  The region is seismically stable and no one has been able to offer any natural explanation.   Some claim that the hum is a government experiment in mind control... others say that it's a form of mass hallucination.

Taos is not unique. Similar reports of low frequency hums have been made in Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Canada, many places in the United States, most recently in Indiana.

Troubled people in England who hear the hum have even formed an organization called the Low Frequency Noise Sufferers Association.