Page 1 of 2
APOD: The Bloop: A Mysterious Sound from... (2010 Apr 27)
Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 3:52 am
by APOD Robot
The Bloop: A Mysterious Sound from the Deep Ocean
Explanation: What created this strange sound in Earth's Pacific Ocean?
Pictured above is a visual representation of a
loud and unusual sound, dubbed a Bloop, captured by
deep sea microphones in 1997. In the
above graph, time is shown on the horizontal axis, deep
pitch is shown on the vertical axis, and brightness designates loudness. Although
Bloops are some of the
loudest sounds of any type ever recorded in
Earth's oceans, their origin remains unknown.
The Bloop sound was placed as occurring several times off the southern coast of
South America and was
audible 5,000 kilometers away. Although
the sound has similarities to those vocalized by living organisms, not even a
blue whale is
large enough to croon this loud.
The sounds point to the intriguing hypothesis that even larger life forms lurk in the unexplored darkness of Earth's
deep oceans. A less imagination-inspiring possibility, however, is that the sounds resulted from some sort of
iceberg calving. No further
Bloops have been heard since 1997, although
other loud and
unexplained sounds have been recorded.
[/b]
Re: APOD: The Bloop: A Mysterious Sound from... (2010 Apr 27
Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 4:31 am
by JeffG
Years ago one of the nature TV programs did an episode on icebergs, and they happened to film one the size of Texas bouncing (slowly) off the seafloor. I can't even describe the crash this thing made every time it hit bottom, but I bet it easily traveled 5000km.
Anyway that's my theory about Bloops.
OSOD: Oceanic Sound Of the Day(2010 Apr 27)
Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 4:44 am
by neufer
JeffG wrote:Years ago one of the nature TV programs did an episode on icebergs, and they happened to film one the size of Texas bouncing (slowly) off the seafloor. I can't even describe the crash this thing made every time it hit bottom, but I bet it easily traveled 5000km.
Anyway that's my theory about Bloops.
That's one tall iceberg (and one far from Antarctica)!
Release the BLOOP!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloop wrote:
<<The Bloop is the name given to an ultra-low frequency and extremely powerful underwater sound detected by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) several times during the summer of 1997. The source of the sound remains unknown.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bloop.ogg
The sound, traced to somewhere around 50° S 100° W (a remote point in the south Pacific Ocean west of the southern tip of South America), was detected repeatedly by the Equatorial Pacific Ocean autonomous hydrophone array, which uses U.S. Navy equipment originally designed to detect Soviet submarines.
According to the NOAA description, it "rises rapidly in frequency over about one minute and was of sufficient amplitude to be heard on multiple sensors, at a range of over 5,000 km." NOAA's system ruled out its origin as any known man-made sound, such as a submarine or bomb, or familiar geological sounds such as volcanoes or earthquakes. While the audio profile of the bloop does resemble that of a living creature, the system identified it as unknown because it was far too loud for that to have been the case: it was several times louder than the loudest known biological sound. Five other significant unexplained sounds have been named by NOAA: Julia, Train, Slowdown, Whistle, and Upsweep.
Dr. Christopher Fox of the NOAA speculated that the Bloop may be ice calving in Antarctica. A year later Dr. Fox was paraphrased speculating it was likely animal in origin.>>
Re: APOD: The Bloop: A Mysterious Sound from... (2010 Apr 27
Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 5:22 am
by biddie67
Any old house has it mysterious creaks and groans; surely this old Earth, with all its parts under stresses and strains, is going to let out some sounds of its own. Icebergs, underwater volcanoes/vents, shifting plates, plates that haven't shifted yet but are complaining.... You can't help but wonder if even the magma in the Earth's core is capable of generating sounds that can be transmitted into the oceans...
These sounds have to be originated from sufficently large sources to be carried so far about the oceans.
Re: APOD: The Bloop: A Mysterious Sound from... (2010 Apr 27
Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 7:59 am
by wonderboy
If the sound, sounded like a bloop. maybe it was a bubble of magma from the earths core. There are areas under the ocean where the crust of the earth is really thin, I don't know how thin it is off the coast where neufer has said the sound originated from but thats just one idea.
I do, however, love the idea of the sound coming from a heeeeeeeuge sea faring creature of some sort. I want to see it and catch it for further study.
I also want to know why the sound is unlikely to be from a biological source, i.e. an animal, when scientists themselves have said that they know less about earths oceans than they do about space! The truth is, that there could be MASSIVE lifeforms down there in the guise of Krakens, or whales the likes of which we have never seen before.
Lets go fishin!
Paul
Re: APOD: The Bloop: A Mysterious Sound from... (2010 Apr 27
Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 8:19 am
by Tex
Has anyone proposed a small asteroid striking the sea? I know the sounds are actually pretty long in duration, so it's unlikely, but what would that sound like? I assume it happens at least 2/3 more in the ocean than on land...
Re: APOD: The Bloop: A Mysterious Sound from... (2010 Apr 27
Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 9:13 am
by Fomalhaut
There is always the possibility this could have been caused by a sizeable Asteroid strike in this large expanse of ocean, well away from human observation. Tracking such objects has advanced hugely since then.
Re: APOD: The Bloop: A Mysterious Sound from... (2010 Apr 27
Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 10:51 am
by agulesin
APOD falls from the skies into the sea (with a bloop!). Is there no limit to what "Astronomy" includes?
)
Re: APOD: The Bloop: A Mysterious Sound from... (2010 Apr 27
Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 11:39 am
by Astronut
Aw, c'mon guys - can't Mother Nature pass some gas in peace without everyone trying to explain it?? - Sheese!
Re: APOD: The Bloop: A Mysterious Sound from... (2010 Apr 27
Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 12:26 pm
by r0blar
As on neufer's picture it seems quite obvious that it was Cthulhu who stirs in his slumber.
Re: APOD: The Bloop: A Mysterious Sound from... (2010 Apr 27
Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 12:51 pm
by wonderboy
Its a sea monster. Maybe its godzilla on his holidays! Wheres Matthew Broderick when you need him... Probably trying to find where the rest of his scary skinny wife went I bet.
Imagine it was a sea monster? How cool would that be?
I want to pet him.
Paul
Godzilla solution
Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 1:56 pm
by neufer
Japan has always been active in
whale research primary for the purpose of fishing them out to extinction.
I think that this was
"moose call experiment" to see
if they attract whales by playing back their own sounds in prime whaling territory.
They had the means, motive, and opportunity
just so long a Greenpeace didn't catch up with them.
Either it didn't work out as planned or, more likely,
the Japanese simply got cold feet when they discovered that their activities were being monitored.
Squid Fishing boats use lights to attract squid.
Re: APOD: The Bloop: A Mysterious Sound from... (2010 Apr 27
Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 2:02 pm
by Mosbycuz3tr
Hmm. Interesting that none of the speculation involves ocean crust movements, either subduction activity, or expanding ridge activity. The latter is rather unlikely, and one wonders there was no associated earthquake anywhere nearby. And yup: the universe is BIG: Romans 1:20.
Re: APOD: The Bloop: A Mysterious Sound from... (2010 Apr 27
Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 2:25 pm
by wonderboy
I knooooooooow.
I said a magma bubble. However, I want to hear the sound, so I can tell what it is. If it was an iceberg surely the noise would be a loud, but dull thud, tectonic movements would surely be crunchy sounding like a bone breaking only louder etc, and it would be more prolonged than the noise in question.
I sooooooooooooooooooooooooo want it to be a sea monster.
Paul.
Re: APOD: The Bloop: A Mysterious Sound from... (2010 Apr 27
Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 3:30 pm
by owlice
Paul, there's a link to the sound on the APOD page; go listen!
Re: APOD: The Bloop: A Mysterious Sound from... (2010 Apr 27
Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 7:48 pm
by MarkusMaximus
Re: APOD: The Bloop: A Mysterious Sound from... (2010 Apr 27
Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 8:53 pm
by emc
NEWS FLASH!!! KRAKEN PASSES GAS... scientists baffled... APOD not so baffled...
Re: APOD: The Bloop: A Mysterious Sound from... (2010 Apr 27
Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 8:54 pm
by Guest
Great APOD today! A useful annotation of the heatmap would be labels designating the peak intensity possible by blue-whales, ocean liners, etc...
Re: APOD: The Bloop: A Mysterious Sound from... (2010 Apr 27
Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 10:02 pm
by orin stepanek
Re: APOD: The Bloop: A Mysterious Sound from... (2010 Apr 27
Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 11:22 pm
by dfishershin
Could it be a huge gas bubble from methane hydrates on the ocean floor?
http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/schmidt_02/
There seems to be a deposit in about the right spot.
Re: APOD: The Bloop: A Mysterious Sound from... (2010 Apr 27
Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 1:41 am
by neufer
dfishershin wrote:
Could it be a huge gas bubble from methane hydrates on the ocean floor?
There seems to be a deposit in about the right spot.
Along the coast of Chile? Not even close.
"Chronic ingestion of chili may induce gastroesophageal reflux."
Re: APOD: The Bloop: A Mysterious Sound from... (2010 Apr 27
Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 3:04 am
by Martin
I listened to the audio recording and I heard..."BLOOP...click....CLICK'. Which made me think of a Horse with no name. Interesting.
Re: APOD: The Bloop: A Mysterious Sound from... (2010 Apr 27
Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 6:04 am
by agulesin
emc wrote:NEWS FLASH!!! KRAKEN PASSES GAS... scientists baffled... APOD not so baffled...
This explains the Tsunami effect...
Re: APOD: The Bloop: A Mysterious Sound from... (2010 Apr 27
Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 11:29 am
by DavidLeodis
As a Bloop has not been heard since 1997 it would be a shame if it was from a then living creature that has since died with no offspring (at least that we are aware of or have been told of!).
Re: APOD: The Bloop: A Mysterious Sound from... (2010 Apr 27
Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 1:40 pm
by Jim Miller
For those interested in more information about underwater sound, the Discovery of Sound in the Sea site is appropriate for all ages.
http://www.dosits.org
