Millions of people around the world have been hearing an unexplained humming sound at nights. The mysterious noise could drive some to the point of insanity.
UFO activity and alien invasions were the suspected causes put forward in the past.
Now scientists say that they have solved the mystery of the strange drone which keeps people up at night.
The Express reports:
‘The Hum’ – as it is known – can be heard by some more than others and has been blamed for pushing people to the brink of madness with sleepless nights and a constant ringing in the ears.
Some thought it was the fault of gas pipes or power lines, but experts now believe the elusive buzzing is down to “ocean waves”.
Researchers say currents in the sea cause the Earth to vibrate subtly as they shift across its surface, creating “microseismic” activity that elicits a “ring”.
The findings mean conspiracy theorists who had blamed submarines or even mating fish were at least looking in the right direction in their search for an answer to the intriguing low-level noise.
According to scientists Fabrice Ardhuin, Lucia Gualtieri and Eleonore Stutzmann, who co-authored the study, “the hum is the least understood part of Earth’s oscillations”.
The trio of French academics published their findings in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
“I think our result is an important step in the transformation of mysterious noise into an understood signal,” Mr Ardhuin said.
The strange noise, which only affects one in 50 people – or two per cent of the world’s population – was first reported in the 1970s.
Just this week, residents in Plymouth, Devon, complained of a “melodic, droning” sound.
One resident told the Plymouth Herald: “You wake up and thought it was something in the house. You can’t say it’s loud, but it’s a nuisance.
“We don’t hear it in the daytime, only at night.”
Despite extensive research, scientists had until now failed to come up with a conclusive answer to what caused the hum, with the most commonly cited explanations being farm or factory machinery.