Marquess the Curzon of Kedleston (1923) listed in his Tales of Travels 33 observations of singing dunes from desert explorers including Marco Polo in China, the Emporer Baber in Afghanistan and Charles Darwin in Chile. He noted that in former days these tales, when they appeared in the pages of mediaeval travelers, were attributed to local superstition or to an excited imagination, and were not supposed to have any scientific basis. The booming sand dunes are found all over the world; in Asia, Africa, North- and South-America.
Asia
Booming dunes can be found in China, the Mingsha Shan, near Dunhuang, the Golden Bell of Resonant Sand, near Shapotou, the Humming Sand Bay near Baotou and several sand dunes in the Badain-Jaran desert. Furthermore, there are unconfirmed reports of the existence of more singing dunes in China; the Sand Sounding Hill of Hami near Balikun and the Five-Peak-Mountain near Mori. In Kazakhstan, the Akkum-Kalkan booming dunes have been reported and in Afghanistan there exist descriptions of the Moving sands (Reg-I-Ruwan) of Kabul and the Moving sands (Rig-I-Rawan) near Kalah-I-Kah. On the Middle-Eastern peninsula, the Hill of the Gong (Jebel Nakus) near Tor and several booming dunes in the Gilf Kebib Desert have been reported.
Africa
Booming dunes have been found at various locations in Africa. There are reports of booming sand dunes near the Dakhla Oasis, dunes near the well of Bir-El-Abbas on the road between Timbuctoo and Morocco, at Foum Agoutir near Tarfaya in Morocco and at a sand dune near the Chad-Libya border close to the Korizo Pass. In the Sahara region, many more occassions of booming dunes have been described in travel journals without determination of the exact position. Further south, booming dunes have been reported near Witsands in the Kalahari desert and the Great Sand Dunes near the Namib Platform.
South-America
In South-America, there are only a few observations of booming dunes. El Cerro Bramador and El Punto de Diabolo (Mar de Dunas) near Copiaco, Chile are the only locations reported in literature.
North-America
There are several observations of desert booming sand dunes in the North-American region. In California, Eureka Dunes in Death Valley, Kelso Dunes in Mojave National Preserve and Dumont Dunes in the Mojave Desert can be found. In Nevada, Sand Mountain and Big Dune are two confirmed booming dunes. Further east, in Colorado, the Great Sand Dunes National Park has several singing dunes as well. There are also several booming backbeach dunes in this region, which are situated adjacent to the ocean; the Roaring dunes of Kauai and the Dunes of Niihau in Hawaii and the Mountain of the Bell in Baja California, Mexico. The intriguing aspect is that these bachbeach dunes are composed of calcium-based sand instead of common silica-based sand. Still, they exhibit booming properties. On the map, the locations visited by Caltech researchers are indicated. Note that when our group visited Great Sand Dunes National Park, the dunes did not boom because of heavy rain that week. The park ranger confirmed that usually the dune are able to emit the booming sound.
