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During Paul and Jessica’s perilous trek through the desert inDune, they encounter a natural phenomenon called drum sand. Jessica recognizes the danger immediately, forcing the pair to run for their lives as a sandworm homes in on their position. Once they are taken in by the Fremen, the exiled Atreides learn to recognize and avoid drum sand, and it never becomes a problem for them again.
What, exactly, is drum sand, and why is it so dangerous? While it’s only mentioned briefly in the books and movies, its presence helps drive home just how hostile Arrakis is to human life.
What Is Drum Sand?
Drum sand is a specific mixture found on Arrakis thatcarries vibrations much farther and fasterthan normal sand. Impacts on drum sand, like those made by human footsteps, are audible on the surface. In the books,stomping or running on drum sand creates a loud booming effect, hence the name.
“…Paul saw a plane of flat sand stretching out at the base.
He stepped onto it, stumbled in his fatigue, righted himself with an involuntary out-thrusting of a foot. Resonant booming shook the sands around them.
Paul lurched sideways two steps. ‘Boom! Boom!’
‘Drum sand!’ Jessica hissed… ‘Run!'”
-Dune, p.265
Arrakis’ apex predators, the subterranean sandworms,hunt by feeling the vibrations in the sandmade by creatures moving on the surface. The Fremen have mastered the technique called the sand walk, which allows them to cross the desert while appearing to the worms as the normal shifting of the sand in the wind. On drum sand, though, any vibrations are amplified to the point where any nearby worm will immediately notice and rush to devour whatever is above.
How Does Drum Sand Work?
While drum sand is a fictional feature of a fictional planet, desert sand on Earth is known to make sounds as it shifts.This 1997 article from Scientific Americandiscusses whistling sands, which make a high-pitched sound due to quartz grains mixed in, and the much more rarebooming sands.
When sand consists ofround, polished grains, and is particularly loose as a result of a sandstorm or other disturbance, thousands upon thousands of them cascading over one another in a dune avalanche cancreate a low, booming sound.As the authors of the article point out, “Although booming sand is relatively uncommon on Earth, it may be common in the waterless or near-waterless environments of the Moon and Mars.”
A nearly-waterless planet covered with sand… if drum sand exists out there in the galaxy, the planet on which it’s found could look very much like Dune.
