When the planet screamed... what was the most powerful sound wave ever recorded by humanity?

 

human experience

When the planet screamed... what was the most powerful sound wave ever recorded by humanity?

At a time when some sounds can reach dangerous levels that cause permanent hearing damage, the question arises: What is the loudest sound ever recorded on planet Earth?
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The answer varies depending on the criteria, but most historical records indicate that the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa in Indonesia was the loudest volcano ever recorded. The shockwave was heard 3,000 kilometers away, and pressure gauges around the world registered the tremendous impact.

 At a distance of just 160 kilometers, the sound was estimated at 170 decibels, an intensity sufficient to cause permanent hearing loss, while the eardrums of some sailors as far as 64 kilometers away were ruptured.
Studies show that sounds exceeding 140 decibels become painful, while hearing damage can begin at only 85 decibels after prolonged exposure. The sound of a jet engine is about 140 decibels.

Recent estimates suggest that the Krakatoa shockwave reached 310 decibels, a level at which a sound wave becomes a massive shockwave, and was powerful enough to circle the Earth seven times. However, acoustics experts emphasize that these measurements remain estimates because no one was close enough to measure the explosion at its source.

The other contender for first place is the 1908 Tunguska meteorite explosion over Siberia, which devastated vast areas of forest, and whose intensity scientists estimated at about 300 to 315 decibels.
The most powerful voice of the modern era
Based solely on recent scientific records, experts agree that the underwater eruption of the Hunga Tonga volcano in January 2022 was the most powerful ever recorded.

The nearest scientific observatory to the explosion, 68 kilometers away, recorded a pressure jump of 1,800 Pascals, a massive shock wave that reached thousands of kilometers and was heard by people in Alaska and Europe.
Scientists confirm that the explosion was so large that it could not be measured in "decibels" in the traditional sense, as it went beyond the stage of normal sound and turned into a huge pressure wave moving at tremendous speeds.

"Silent" human experiments

Surprisingly, the most powerful man-made pressure wave was completely inaudible, because it occurred inside a vacuum chamber during a laser experiment that produced a pressure wave estimated at 270 decibels, louder than the noise of the famous Saturn 5 rocket, but because there was no air, there was no sound.
So, according to experts, the Tonga volcano in 2022 had the highest sound wave or sound-like sound recorded by modern devices, while Krakatoa remains the most famous and historically violent in terms of the sound that was heard across continents.