Eerie sounds coming from ‘Trembling Giant’ the world’s oldest living organism

An artist recorded the sound of the biggest and oldest living organism - and the sound is pretty ominous.

The 'Quaking giant' a.k.a. Pando is an Aspen clone - made up of over 40,000 individual trees - in the Fishlake National Forest in Utah.

It spans 106 acres and weighs over 13.2 million pounds, subsequently believed to be the world's heaviest organism.

It's also thought to be the world's oldest living organism, with estimates of its age ranging from a few thousand years to a whopping 80,000 years.

Sound artist Jeff Rice decided to investigate what noise the Pando makes and let's just say the audio feature he created definitely wouldn't go amiss in an episode of Stranger Things, or if you want to go even darker, it might make a good backing track to that scene in Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead.

Getty Images/ ayfun Coskun/ Anadolu Agency

The Pando may look like multiple trees, but as a result of all of the trees possessing identical genetic markers and being connected by an underground root system, the Pando is thought of as one organism.

It all grew from a single seed and the trees could more accurately be thought of as branches.

According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the 'exact age of the clone and its root system is difficult to calculate, but it is estimated to have started at the end of the last ice age'.

The USDA's website adds: "Some of the trees are over 130 years old. It was first recognized by researchers in the 1970s and more recently proven by geneticists.

"Its massive size, weight, and prehistoric age have caused worldwide fame."

Getty Images/ Tayfun Coskun/ Anadolu Agency

Rice created an audio feature titled 'Beneath the Tree' by working with Lance Oditt to place multiple above and below ground microphones 'in contact with the roots of a tree (or 'stem') in the Pando aspen forest'.

Eco System Sound's website continues: "The sound captures vibrations from beneath the tree that may be emanating from the root system or the soil.

"The recording was made during a July 2022 thunderstorm and represents perhaps millions of aspen leaves trembling in the wind."

In the recording, you can also hear the sound the tree makes as 'it gathers water and moves nutrients through its massive root system while a storm rages above' and the result is striking.

Rice created the audio feature as part of an artist residency with the non-profit group Friends of Pando.

If you needed reminding just how much of a pea humans are in comparison to other organisms on earth, then this is definitely it.