system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Could someone go deaf from a sound he cannot hear?

If a tone or sound was infrasonic or ultrasonic (below or above the range of human hearing), at a significant enough volume, could it damage hearing? Would the volume needed be equivalent to a normal sonic tone/noise, or much higher/lower?
gpt
Sounds are just pressure differentials that vibrate our eardrum, and the amplitude of the sounds is just the magnitude of the pressure differential between your inner and outer ear. We can only perceive a certain frequency range of vibrations, but that doesn't mean that something outside of our perceptible range doesn't effect our ears.

Take, for example, a pressure wave caused by an explosion. The initial wave is a single pulse (essentially a frequency of zero). That pulse is easily enough pressure to rupture your eardrum and deafen you permanently even though you wouldn't be able to hear it.