Sound Blog

12 miles out · May 14, 2005 by Matt Gilbert

Out in the ocean there are these oil rigs, also called platform bouys. They stand 40 ft. above the water on thick yellow legs. Other rigs stand out on the horizon, but besides that there is nothing nearby. The platforms are packed with tanks and pipes and cages and ladders, and warning signs. Each platform has a warning sound, a solid tone, absurdly loud that seems to come from a strange ringed metal column on the platform. It blasts the tone in all directions. After a few seconds it stops. The tone takes just long enough to repeat so that you can’t anticipate it. Out in the ocean, where there’s nothing in the sound’s way, no walls to bounce off of, no canyons to resound in, there is still some reverb. I suppose the sound in bouncing off of the water, even hundreds of feet away in every direction, and returning to the boat that I’m in, fishing below the platform.

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