If we're talking about sounds within the human hearing frequency range (between 20 and 20,000 Hz), high-intensity sounds above 150 decibels can burst your eardrums, while sounds above 185 dB can impact your inner organs and cause death.
German researcher Jurgen Altmann showed that a blast of 210 decibels or more affects the inner organs — the lungs — and could cause internal injury that could lead to death.
Any noise over 120 decibels, for any length of time, will cause hearing damage and elicit physical pain in your ear. Additionally, noises that register at 150 decibels will rupture a human eardrum.
Common Sources of Noise and Decibel Levels
Noise above 70 dB over a prolonged period of time may start to damage your hearing. Loud noise above 120 dB can cause immediate harm to your ears.
A sperm whale's click is 200 decibels, the unit used to measure the intensity of a sound, said Jennifer Miksis-Olds, associate professor of acoustics at Penn State.
At 194 dB, the energy in the sound waves starts distorting and they create a complete vacuum between themselves. The sound is no longer moving through the air, but is in fact pushing the air along with it, forming a pressurized wall of moving air.
It's a ridiculously loud "sound". It's not possible as a continuous sound in air because the maximum overpressure is double atmospheric, with the troughs a vacuum, which works out at 194 decibels.
Almost all firearms create noise that is over the 140-dB level. A small . 22-caliber rifle can produce noise around 140 dB, while big-bore rifles and pistols can produce sound over 175 dB.
How loud can something be? Once you get to a certain level (194 decibels, to be precise), there comes a point where the low-pressure regions are completely empty – there are no molecules in there at all. The sound can't get 'louder' than that, technically.
On Earth, in our atmosphere at normal pressures, etc., 1000 dB is impossible. The most the pressure variation can possibly be is the standard air pressure at sea level, about 101.3 kPa, which equates to about 194 dB. You would nor perceive the loudness of such a sound as this intensity is enough to kill you instantly.
(Photo by NASA/CXC/Columbia Univ./C. Hailey et al.) For the first time in history, earthlings can hear what a black hole sounds like: a low-pitched groaning, as if a very creaky heavy door was being opened again and again.
A nuclear bomb.
Decibel meters set 250 feet away from test sites peaked at 210 decibels. The sound alone is enough to kill a human being, so if the bomb doesn't kill you, the noise will. Fun fact!
The outside of aircraft engines (around 140 dB at takeoff) and conditions on other aircraft may have higher or lower noise levels.
The average decibel level of human speech is estimated between 55 and 65 decibels. A whisper is considered the lowest decibel level of human speech. A whisper is between 20-30 dB. On the other hand, a human scream can reach decibel levels between 80 and 125 dB.
Sounds above 150 dB have the potential of causing life-threatening issues. Sounds between 170-200 dB are so intense that they can cause lethal issues like pulmonary embolisms, pulmonary contusions, or even burst lungs.
4. The infamous Tzar Bomba reached probably 224 dB(Z) (releasing one fourth of the Krakatoa explosion), and accounts for the largest human-made noise. Some sources report that this event created a 280 dB(Z) level, but I don't think it can be a correct value.
The loudest sound in recorded human history is estimated to be the eruption of Krakatoa at around 300 dB. 1000 db is not possible.
100 decibels is a high decibel level. It is considered dangerous to human hearing and can cause hearing damage or hearing loss if your exposure to it exceeds 15 minutes. The maximum recommended limit for human exposure is 85 decibels over a period of 8 hours or 70 decibels over a period of 24 hours.
a sound greater than 1,100 decibels would unleash enough energy to act like an equivalent quantity of mass. Through Einstein's laws of relativity, this mass would create enough gravity enough to form a black hole. Shortly thereafter, everything in existence would disappear in a crush of sound.
“The F/A-18 Super Hornet produces 118 decibels of noise, which is the equivalent of a rock concert,” Schrock said. “A reduction of four decibels would have a significant impact on noise issues related to our military aircraft.” The technology also may have applications in commercial aviation, Seiner said.
The grenade is thrown and explodes after a roughly 1.5-second delay. The explosion of magnesium-based pyrotechnic chemicals causes a very bright flash and a loud sound (160−180 decibels), which can cause temporary blindness, temporary loss of hearing and loss of balance, as well as a sense of panic.
Car horn: 110 decibels. Nightclub: 110 decibels. Ambulance siren: 112 decibels.
Many estimates peg the noise level of a typical ambulance siren in the neighborhood of 120–130 decibels (dB). Exposure at these levels without hearing protection, even for a brief period, can cause permanent hearing damage.
Modern sirens can develop a sound level of up to 135 decibels at 100 feet (30 m).
Tsar Bomba (224dB) The Soviet RDS-202 hydrogen bomb (code name Ivan or Vanya) became known to the rest of the world as the Tsar Bomba. Tested in 1961, the bomb was 8m long and weighed 27,000kg. Its explosion equalled 50 megatonnes of TNT, and ripples from its test explosion could be felt all around the world.