Tom Scott Goes Inside a Giant Empty Oil Tank to Witness a Demonstration of the World’s Longest Echo

While on location in Invergordon, Scotland, the ever-daring Tom Scott slid inside a cleaned and decommissioned Inchindown oil tank in order to witness a fascinating demonstration of the site’s record setting reverberation time. An expert in the tank with Scott fired a starter pistol and the resulting reverberation sounded at various frequencies for an incredible amount of time.

When it was in use by the Royal Navy all this colossal space would have been filled with fuel oil. With these oil tanks, the Royal Navy accidentally created the greatest reverberation chamber in the world. Flat surfaces enclosed by solid rock, and a chamber big enough that sound takes a whole second or more to go off the far wall and bounce back. But still narrow enough that you get lots of reverberation from all the close surfaces as well.