Sounds beyond our reach.
Threshold’s Year of Sound Journal
Episode II: Hidden Beneath the Surface
Pistol Shrimp made the crackling background noise you just heard, each using an oversized claw that ejects a small packet of water as it snaps shut with blinding speed. In that action, a small vapor bubble is born that lasts just an instant. When it collapses, the bubble generates a tiny 200-decibel shock wave, stunning or killing the shrimp’s prey and making predators think twice. This recording from Falmouth, UK indicates the presence of many thousands of these creatures on the harbor floor.
The crackling might easily be confused with the sound of frying or rain in the garden, but its origin is the stuff of wonder: the astounding capabilities of diminutive creatures worthy of our stewardship, concealed from us by nothing more than the contact of water with air. The boundary has no thickness at all and is not even a material – just a plane of separation.
We can casually put a toe right through it, but it is a barrier effective enough to keep the sonic richness below the surface secret from those above. We are humbled by that elegant effectiveness when compared to the labor, thought, and craftsmanship required to isolate one room from another.
We hope this 10-second crossing of a boundary injects a little wonder into your complicated world, and we wish you well.
