Earthquake music

Let's face it, earthquakes don't really get the positive reviews they deserve. It may have something to do with buildings collapsing and bridges failing.

To remedify this, MaxCo. is seeking to produce and release an album of earthquake music. High-resolution cameras will be dotted around city rooftops, woodland trees and other such places where tall thin things tend to exist. After the next major quake (and assuming that at least some buildings/trees survive), the footage will be analysed pixel by pixel, to measure the swaying of tall objects. All the sways will then be up-shifted by a few octaves to bring them into the audio range.

The resulting symphony from a large quake in (say) a city will begin with a discordant clamour of sound, dominated by the main frequency of the quake itself. Once the quake stops, however, each skyscraper will continue to resonate at its own characteristic frequency (or perhaps a base frequency plus one or two harmonics). Shorter, stiffer buildings will produce a rapidly fading "piiiing", like wineglass being tapped; taller more flexible ones will produce deeply sonorous bass notes that take minutes to fade into silence. Perhaps one or two buildings will start out on one note, and then abruptly shift frequency as a vital structural element cracks somewhere in the core.

Forests will provide a much more complex soundscape - not only are trees more flexible than most buildings, but their tapering trunks and large limbs will add richness and overtones.

"Really? £25bn of damage? Yes, but it sounded lovely."