Go west for peace and quiet.
Whit Richardson | Getty Images
If sirens, car horns, factory noise or the din of bustling cities is growing too great to bear, a change of scenery might be in order. Try the Adirondacks. Or go west.
The National Parks Service collected ambient noise data for the entire United States, totaling about one million hours of recorded sound in deserts, mountains, and, yes, cities. The data they collected give a map of the loudest places in the U.S., as well as places where noise levels hover around a serene 20 decibels.
Scientific American put together a 60-second video naming a few of the places in the United States where the sonic landscape is little changed from what it was a century ago.