Below the rumble of passing cars, chirping birds, and rustling leaves, the Earth is constantly humming. This geologic symphony is driven by the ever-sloshing oceans that blanket nearly three-quarters of our planet, but tracing individual refrains from this watery orchestra has long posed a challenge.

Now, researchers have done just that, picking out a previously unknown seismic phenomenon that they have dubbed stormquakes. These events, described this week in Geophysical Research Letters, are pulses of seismic waves birthed from the ferocious energy in massive storms, and they can radiate thousands of miles across continents. (Learn about a different kind of strange seismic wave that rippled around the world.)

“I was surprised by what they saw,” says Göran Ekström, a