Time synchronized sonification of paleoclimatic data: Orbital eccentricity, ecological abundance and stable isotopes

Paleoclimatic data including orbital eccentricity, mollusk species counts and carbonate isotope data are combined in an event based, time synchronized, parameter mapped sonification that plays backwards through geologic time from ~3.2 million years ago to ~7.4 million years ago. Interpretations of the sonified data are compared to the interpretations of previously published studies and insight has been gained regarding the usefulness of auditory display methods in this scientific context. The field of auditory display has grown exponentially in recent years but there is a lack of papers that use sonification to explore science-based data within a legitimate scientific framework. The end result allow users to monitor a substantial portion of the Late Neogene period (around 4.2 million years in length) in less than 2 minutes. Users perceive shifts in mollusk counts (a temperature proxy) as the pink noise changes structure and travels L and R in the sound field. Low frequency discrete tones mimic the changing eccentricity of Earth's orbit as bell tones (representing isotope trends) move chaotically in the center channel. It is shown that sonification can preserve both simple and advanced structures in scientific data as shown in numerous sound examples and verified with unique figures that compare sonification waveforms or spectrograms to original publication figures.