© 2006 All Rights Reserved. Do not distribute or repurpose this work without written permission from the copyright holder(s).
Printed from https://www.damninteresting.com/retired/the-call-of-the-bloop/
This article is marked as 'retired'. The information here may be out of date, incomplete, and/or incorrect.
During the Cold War, the United States Navy erected a vast array of underwater listening devices in order to detect and track Soviet nuclear submarines. These hydrophones were placed at roughly 3,000 mile intervals in the deep layer of water known as the deep sound channel, where cold temperatures and high pressures allow sound waves to propagate great distances. When the Cold War ended, rather than mothballing the Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS), the U.S. Navy lent the Cold War relic to science.
The array has since been used to track many fascinating undersea events, such as whale migrations, earthquakes, ocean currents, volcanic activity , and the shifting of Antarctic ice. But one sound captured by the sensitive SOSUS hydrophones has scientists puzzled. It fits the profile of a living creature, but for a creature to create this sound it would have to be significantly larger than a blue whale, which is believed to be the largest animal ever to have lived.
The unexplainable sound was detected several times during the summer of 1997, originating off the South American southwest coast at about 50° S 100° W. Each time that it was captured the ultra-low frequency sound rose rapidly in frequency over about one minute, and had sufficient amplitude to be heard on multiple sensors from over 3,000 miles away. Perplexed researchers, unable to identify any possible source for the sound, dubbed it “The Bloop.”
The sound shares many characteristics with those emanated from biological creatures, in fact it fits those parameters so closely that a large number of researchers are convinced that its origin is animal. But in order for an aquatic animal to emit a sound that can travel over 3,000 miles though Earth’s noisy oceans, scientists say that it would need an incredibly large noise-making apparatus, one much bigger than that of the blue whale.
Theories abound as to the source of the Bloop. If it is the vocalization of a living organism, it is one which makes its home in the dark, cold depths of the ocean. Some have suggested that giant squids could be responsible for the sound, but that is unlikely considering that no known species of cephalopod have the gas-filled sac necessary to reach such great volumes. Indeed science has not recorded any animals— living or extinct— with nearly enough size to house the organs needed to produce the level of output demonstrated by the Bloop… so unless this mystery creature uses some unknown mechanism to generate sound, it is presumed to be an incredibly massive organism.
Further study of the Bloop is hampered by the fact that it has not been heard since the summer of ’97. It is almost certain that unseen creatures still lurk in the deep and dark oceans, creatures which are strange and fascinating. Such an unknown animal may have uttered these sounds while lingering at an unusually shallow depth. Unless researchers encounter the sound again, there is little chance that we’ll have any explanation more concrete than scientific speculation. But given its unusual properties and strong indications of a large biological origin, it makes for a compelling mystery.
Update: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has concluded that the Bloop sound is “consistent with icequakes generated by large icebergs as they crack and fracture.” It was presumably a large event to be heard so far away. It’s small wonder so many people reject science…the truth often cannot compete with the mystery.
© 2006 All Rights Reserved. Do not distribute or repurpose this work without written permission from the copyright holder(s).
Printed from https://www.damninteresting.com/retired/the-call-of-the-bloop/
Since you enjoyed our work enough to print it out, and read it clear to the end, would you consider donating a few dollars at https://www.damninteresting.com/donate ?
So, is it like a mega-whale or similar? how large would the voicebox have to be in order to make a sound. what if the voice box is out of normal proportions in order to communicate with others of its species down in the deep dark ocean?
It was my mother in-law doing some deep sea diving! She had eaten a whole pie with lots of whipped cream and contracted a terrible case of cramps!
Is the title a reference to “The Call of Cthulu”? The short story does involve a giant monster living in the deep ocean… or am I just seeing things that arent there?
If we ever do find it, I say we blow it up…just to be safe.
The wikipedia article says that some scientists believe it could be an as yet undiscovered species of whale that is far greater in size to any previously discovered. I find this quite unlikely though because even if it did usually stay at very deep depths it would still have to surface for oxygen now and again (like sperm whales) and would therefore have to have been seen at least a few times by people. The idea that it is some giant species of cephalopod could be more plausible because they can remain at depth indefinetly although there are problems with this (as stated in the article).
Maybe Surface isn’t science fiction after all…
The sound is very interesting. All of the articles herein linked state that it matches the characteristics of an animal sound. Does that mean that scientists have ruled out non-organic sources? Granted I know nothing of the field of aquatic acoustics, but it sounds to me like it could easily be a volcanic vent or other such gaseous release from the sea floor.
Maybe the scientists should just chalk this up as an “aquatic blooper”.
Marius…I think you nailed it. If the bloop was only heard once, by several pickup sensors and not hear since ’97, I’d have to say a “bloop” is as much a burp, blech or phart from an undersea volcano.
Somebody must be doing some deep sea diving to surface with articles like this. Way to go DI!
another viewpoint said: “Marius…I think you nailed it. If the bloop was only heard once, by several pickup sensors and not hear since ’97, I’d have to say a “bloop” is as much a burp, blech or phart from an undersea volcano.”
It was actually heard more then once over the summer. Note the article says “Each time that it was captured the ultra-low frequency sound rose rapidly in frequency over about one minute, and had sufficient amplitude to be heard on multiple sensors from over 3,000 miles away.” So it was heard more then one time, just not heard after the summer of ’97
I doubt creatures that big lurks in the depts of the oceans. If they excisted some of ’em would have washed ashore sooner or later…
Regarding the bloop…Could it have been gas being released from the sea bed?
Incredible story! Hmm…maybe a Megalodon is still lurking in the deep, dark waters? Man…I get chills just thinking what kind of a creature could be down there… :-O
Arg…ye be suprised what lurks in the darkest corners of Davey Jones Locker…
Ha – Just read “Loch” by Steve Alten in which he references these same Bloops and ties it in with the legend of Nessie and the mysteries of the Sargasso Sea!
I am curious about a couple of things. What criteria are they using to determine the biological sounding nature of the sound. Is this an objective analysis of the sound wave form, or are they just listening to it and saying “Wow! Sounds like a big whale!”. I am not saying the latter is invalid, I am just curious – to an experienced expert, the “irrational” analysis can sometimes yield a better insight into the nature of something like that than you’d expect, though this is difficult to prove.
Anyway, the thought occurred to me that if this is just a geologic event, say, a big bubble of methane gas blurping up from an ocean floor covered in many meters of thick sediment, could it be linked to seismic occurences? The bloop occurred several times during the summer of 1997, were there any coincidental occurrences, say hurricanes, other weather patterns, phases of the moon?
Again, just curious.
Could it be a group of whales singing at the same time?
A part of me has to realize how much people, scientists or not, simply “want” it to an animal. When we have to assume, our assumptions are easily adjusted to fit our fancies. However I’d be stupid assuming if there was a giant animal in the deep ocean we “would have seen it by now”. There’s a whole lot of ocean yet to be discovered and we’re still finding, among other creatures, mammals–to this day–on the very land we’ve been trampling on for countless ages. Anyway, I guess until there’s further proof, it’s best to be open-minded to all possibilities. We also have to remember how often animals can surprise us. We know very little about Earth’s biggest animal, relative to other species. Maybe the blue whale found a way to give a shout out in a manner yet to be recorded.
Anonymous User said: “Could it be a group of whales singing at the same time?”
Yeah, maybe it was one whales birthday and loads of other whales hid behind a big rock, waited for the birthday whale to approach and then they all sprung out shouting “SUPRISE!” in whale form. Well I’m satisfied: case closed.
Xoebe said: “I am curious about a couple of things. What criteria are they using to determine the biological sounding nature of the sound. Is this an objective analysis of the sound wave form, or are they just listening to it and saying “Wow! Sounds like a big whale!”. I am not saying the latter is invalid, I am just curious – to an experienced expert, the “irrational” analysis can sometimes yield a better insight into the nature of something like that than you’d expect, though this is difficult to prove.
Anyway, the thought occurred to me that if this is just a geologic event, say, a big bubble of methane gas blurping up from an ocean floor covered in many meters of thick sediment, could it be linked to seismic occurences? The bloop occurred several times during the summer of 1997, were there any coincidental occurrences, say hurricanes, other weather patterns, phases of the moon?
Again, just curious.”
Ya know, this raises a very good question… I’d be very interested to know if there was some sort of seismic activity or some other natural occurrence that was going on that summer that would’ve created those noises. I find it odd that no one has heard it since — and I’m sure that *somebody* is on the lookout for it. If this is a beastie of some sort, then he/she must not have much to say!
Although, listening to the recording, I could just imagine some whale was rocking out on a walkman, listening to Giovanni Humpback’s Greatest Hits of the Deep and humming along with it!
This is all very interesting but what I really want to know is it true that the USN has abandoned their
huge SOSUS networks? Turned it over to a bunch of scientists? This is extremely troubling to me. Surely the powers that be have not done this. Just because the Soviet Union has broken up does not lessen the threat from enemy submarines. We (U.S.) used to be able to track subs from extremely long distances because of SOSUS. If scientists are now using SOSUS what’s to keep them from monitoring our submarines and reporting that info to a potential enemy. The more I think about this thing the more ill I get.
Dont worry USNSPARKS I’m an STS2(SS) and I know many people who just came or went to shore duty at SOSUS stations. Sure they might have let the scientists use it for a while but they are still there monitoring for other subs and the like.
Someone needs to unwind in a nice warm bath. While you’re relaxing, meditate on this: scientists don’t travel in bunches, they generally travel in schools – so what better group to study marine movement? Keep it clean USNSPARKS, we can hear every word.
Couldn’t it possibly be the case that a whale made that sound, but that somehow the sound got modulated into the “bloop” through water conditions or echoing or whatever mystery of sound science is out there, and they are just misinterpreting the bloop as having come from a much larger creature?
. . . either that, or Leviathan lives. . .
…shoot, a duck’s quack doesn’t echo and nobody knows why.
I do like Stuart’s idea though, the whale form of birthday “surprise”…party time down deep!
“The sound shares many characteristics with those emanated from biological creatures, in fact it fits those parameters so closely that a large number of researchers are convinced that its origin is animal. “
Whoa, comma splice!
Otherwise, damn, that’s interesting! I’ve always loved the idea of large animals lurking in the depths of the ocean, so what a cool article!
white_matter said: “If we ever do find it, I say we blow it up…just to be safe.”
HA! That made me laugh so hard, my stomach hurts now. Thanks.
another viewpoint said: “…shoot, a duck’s quack doesn’t echo and nobody knows why.
Actually, they do know why a duck’s quack doesn’t echo. It has to do with gullibility.
I think it’s interesting to think it may be caused by some sort of geological effect (the Bloop, not the duck’s echo :P), but remember that the recording is sped way up. I don’t know if the pressure at the great depths would do anything to a bubble bursting, but I seriously doubt the sound would be so drawn out. There are many, many, many organisms we have no idea exist. And how long was the SOSUS down there for? The Cold War lasted a long time, and 1997 was only 9 years ago. Pehaps whatever made the Bloop only does it every once in a while, like every 100 years or so, who can say?
These inaccuracies are unnerving: the blue whale is NOT the largest animal ever to have lived. Given her sheer girth, my ex-wife is. I’m certain it was her, despite the claim above it was a mother-in-law. How she ended up on SOSUS in the deep sound channel is irrelavent. Had to be my ex. This shouldn’t be called ‘The Bloop.” It should be called “The Bit@#.” At least I’m not bitter!
In all, I like what karphi said – “A part of me has to realize how much people, scientists or not, simply “want” it to an animal.” I’d love to think this was an animal (or my fat, hideous ex!!!) too, but physics is what they is. Very cool bit of data, regardless.
actually the blue whale isn’t the largest animal evah. those dinosaurfishythingies were way bigger (unfortunatly I don’t know their names.. anyone can help?)
aoeu said: “actually the blue whale isn’t the largest animal evah. those dinosaurfishythingies were way bigger (unfortunatly I don’t know their names.. anyone can help?)”
BLOOP!
Hmm. Without giving up too much…were they called “Donna-saurs?” Icky pun, too.
Wiki’d it. Says big blue is biggest critter.
See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_organism
Jeremy said: “Actually, they do know why a duck’s quack doesn’t echo. It has to do with gullibility.”
I find this absolutely wonderful.
Ahh, this brings back fond memories of Walter Jon Williams’ short story “Surfacing”. (Great read, by the way) Two words: Deep Dwellers.
I am wondering, though, if the distance between the hydrophones is actually 3,000 miles, or if that is a typo. I would imagine that the sytem would be effective if that figure was for yards instead.
USNSPARKS: I’m sure the USN hasn’t given up on listening, only that they are allowing access to one sytem for research purposes. They probably have a much better listening system online and it just isn’t time for anyone else to find out about it yet.
I think the justification for calling it biological went something like this.
“Dear Funders. We found a really big animal. Please send more money.”
Perhaps there are cave systems in the deeps, like the marianas trench and other underwater deep spots where the bloops hang out, and only come out once in a while. Hey… it could happen. :o)
well, im not sure if anyone thought of this, but it COULD be manmade. After all, it is generally close to the coast of south america, and wen listening to the noise recording, you can here a big bubble, maybe from a geyser or something. it may have been something built to harness the power of that geyser, and has since been forgottenabout. it still works becuz it might have something to do with plate tectonics. Check on a map, and ull see its right on the edge of the chillean plate… i can’t scientists havent noticed that >-) It might also just be the plate itself, as its on the chillean fissure.
Jeremy said: “Actually, they do know why a duck’s quack doesn’t echo. It has to do with gullibility.”
That’s nice. :)
I suspect that there are many creatures in the extream deep of the ocean that we will simply never see until we can make a Carbon Nanotube submersible.
“This strength results from the covalent sp2 bonds formed between the individual carbon atoms. In 2000, an MWNT was tested to have a tensile strength of 63 GPa [2]. In comparison, high-carbon steel has a tensile strength of approximately 1.2 GPa.”
(Source is the URL below)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_nanotube
We will be able to make submersables capable of going nearly as deep as some of the deeper parts of the ocean, but never to the deepest because the heat would be too intense for even an unmanned drone to be of any use.
(it’s instruments would fail)
Anyone here remember “X-Com: Enemy in the Deep”?
And regarding the “Biggest Animal” thing:
Am I not correct in assuming that you mean the biggest LIVING animal that we know of?
I looked it up on wikipedia and found the “Bruhathkayosaurus”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruhathkayosaurus
But this is highly debated and I hope I don’t later regret mentioning it.
My overall point is this:
We have explored less than a tenth of the surface of the earth in any real detail, and even less of the ocean.
There have been claws of giant squid pulled out of submarines that were so large they must have come from a squid many times larger than any we have ever seen.
(They were stuck in the thick rubber covering the sonar device)
Even if the “Bloop” surfaced and started speaking perfect english to us and tried to open diplomatic relations with us we would either pretend it doesn’t exist and insult those that do, or try to kill it.
Humans still have a lot of “growing-up” to do, and a lot left to learn about our home.
I just hope we exist long enough to fix most of the things we’ve screwed-up.
Now for the semi-humorous part:
This “Bloop” was actually a protest by several million oceanic creatures for the constant toxic-waste disposal and murder of countless fish and the unbearable noise from the sonar that surely sounds like a fog-horn to anything in the ocean within a few miles of a submarine.
Thanks Damn Interesting for the great articles and you’re welcome DI, since this thread will endure for a long time with the debate that will follow this.
Don’t worry guys, I know what it is!
http://divethedeepscuba.com.au/giant.html
another viewpoint said: “…shoot, a duck’s quack doesn’t echo and nobody knows why.
Yes it does, check out;
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_071.html
I find the most interesting quote from the wiki entry, “The geographic coordinates of the sound were, interestingly, somewhat close to those of the lost city of R’lyeh from H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu stories.”
if we ever find it we couldn’t carry it around to study it we would just have to take a good look at it right then and there
but i hope we do find the” bloop”makers
Seeing how the sound was followed by two more smaller sounds, I could say that this was a gaseous burp followed by two follow up bubbles.
I read all those comments. Nice speculations. Wonderful Humor. Seems a bloop should have been a Monty Python subject of concern.
But then that area of the earth is always under reconstruction being that is in an area of heavy plate movement. Comes to mind that when there is a thunderstorm nearby, the effects seem to last for several days eventhough the storm might only last for a few hours. I notice that thunderstorms that attract large cloud formations seem to reproduce from where they left off a few days later. So eventhough their effects are invisible to the eye, the products of the storm stay around and keep making new storms for a few weeks sometimes until the energy from the original system deteriorates or deminishes completely.
So what I am getting at is say a shift happens in the plates. So now you have to consider all the other plates have to react to that shift. Like an accordian, you push hear and the other side pushes. Then it comes back to the original plate first moving. And until all the energy is extinguished they will keep moving.
So should something belch once in the summer of ’97, then perhaps it needed to continue to belch until all its energy was expired. It finished the total belching, and probably will not happen again until new belching needs to happen.
Maybe next time it happens we can convince the scientists to listen for the alphabet or numbers, some people belch em all the time, why not the earth too.
As for Cuthulu, well if you make coincidences for fiction novels and then say that must have happened, well, phew, I wonder how much fear we should really have to have in order to just walk outside our front door everyday and then drive down the road.
Wouldn’t it be great if all this turned out to be the bottom of a sea turtle rubbing against the microphone. But if it is something huge and scary I hope it comes up soon.
LoveTheOnesYouNeed said: “Wouldn’t it be great if all this turned out to be the bottom of a sea turtle rubbing against the microphone. But if it is something huge and scary I hope it comes up soon.”
Love, you made me spit my drink out all over my screen and keyboard. I never thought a comment would actually make me laugh so hard.
But this bloop comes to show that most scientists are complete MORONS..
They think they know everything. Just because they haven’t seen it, it doesn’t exist.
If this thing turns out to be some God awful, hideous, newly discover Behemoth..
Then I would LOVE nothing more than to be present as the news hits the skeptics.. so I can kick them in their Balls, and BEHEAD them Iraqi style… with a butterknife, record it and send it to their family and friends… well not really..
but I would kick them in the balls!
These damn baldheaded scientists… old bastards.. the top of their heads look like an Egg in a Nest..
Bunch of overweigh, close-minded, lazy, know-it-all, butt-crack-showing, Low-Expectation having ass turkies.
Wow this is very interesting! Even though I just got to read it now, but, hey! Just imagine! If this thing is real, the people/scientists who found this out could make big bucks! (Isn’t this kinda like the newest version of King-Kong?=:)
And if you see the pic of that Blue Whale skeleton, HOLY CHEESEPUFFS!!!!!! That’s HUGE itself! That Blooper must be GIGANTIC!!!!!!!! I wonder if this links somehow to the Titanic, because I’m reading a book on the boat itself, and someone on that boat said,”it is virtually unsinkable”. So in other words, maybe this giant “Blooper” sunk the Titanic!
But you don’t know the rest…..
As wonderful as it is that people have placed this with Call of Cthulhu. Even more along those lines , I have just finished reading At The Mountains Of Madness , which referances the old ones , and their under water reclusion after an ice age , and the high probability that they themselves can not really parish , as well as many other exciting beasties from else where that made R’lyeh where Cthulhu lies dead dreaming ( my brother exclaimed that it was just Cthulhu snoring , bad bout of dreams at that point I suppose ) but if you really want to drive yourself mad with this I do suggest reading other pieces of Lovecrafts works mainly At The Mountains Of Madness and do a note compairsion of what people think this is to his discriptions of the body makeup and noise that he discribes the old ones as having
LEVIATHAN!
or possibly Kraken! though I’m not of a religious bent, I always liked the idea of gigantic sea creatures the likes of which the world has never seen before. Probably bacause I dont sail.
I’ve always known there was one of those bloody things around somewhere : )
I spoke with my sister about this. She used to be a marine biologist. Apparently, at a certain depth, whales’ songs can resonate for thousands of miles. Although this being a whale is unlikely, perhaps a large creature was at a similar depth and it had the same effect.
could this have anything possibly to do with El Nino? The date and area coincides with the 97-98 El nino. I don’t know how but it just a guess.
Well,first, i’m very concerned about this “bloop” phenomena;and i must say to u,to “us” the mankind : this is no joke!,it can result in the materialization of horror,madness and chaos.Im talking about cthulhu,the location of r’lyeh and the origin of the bloop,a coincidence????,our paranoia???,please….if u believe in something: pray and want it to be just that,a coincidence or paranoia;first when facing the incredible,we just close our eyes and look around..
AntiEqualsSociety said: “As wonderful as it is that people have placed this with Call of Cthulhu. Even more along those lines , I have just finished reading At The Mountains Of Madness , which referances the old ones , and their under water reclusion after an ice age , and the high probability that they themselves can not really parish , as well as many other exciting beasties from else where that made R’lyeh where Cthulhu lies dead dreaming ( my brother exclaimed that it was just Cthulhu snoring , bad bout of dreams at that point I suppose ) but if you really want to drive yourself mad with this I do suggest reading other pieces of Lovecrafts works mainly At The Mountains Of Madness and do a note compairsion of what people think this is to his discriptions of the body makeup and noise that he discribes the old ones as having”
At The Mountains of Madness is my personal favorite of Lovecraft, I just finished reading it. :)
Anyways, DI article.
If it was the Cthulhu, that’d be… interesting.
Tracer said: “I spoke with my sister about this. She used to be a marine biologist. Apparently, at a certain depth, whales’ songs can resonate for thousands of miles. Although this being a whale is unlikely, perhaps a large creature was at a similar depth and it had the same effect.”
Is it possible that this was just one whale that had some sort of gland disorder and was much bigger than it was supposed to be? Or maybe, with some sort of gene mutation had an unusually large ‘voice box’?
thats whats wrong with humans with destroy everything we dont know this thing lives down in the deep ocean and it hasnt bothered us why the hell do we need to kill it?
Now that is THE BEST explanation to the phenomenon! Understanding how an organization/politics works is very essential, before you can buy their beliefs. Religious heads have us fooled in the same way…by circulating dumb theories the dumb people are more than willing to lap up.
This is interesting since the location of the noise is so close to the lost city of R’lyeh In story “the call of Cthulhu”. Cthulu is way bigger than a Blue whale but i doubt it was a fictional monster.. how cool would it be if it was…it would be terrifying but still cool!
I suggest you look up Cthulhu on wikipedia for more info.. and At the Mountains of Madness is my favorite too!
The sound originates almost exactly at the coordinates pegged by H. P. Lovecraft for the sunken Cyclopean city R’lyeh. IT”S CTHULHU!! That’s what I think, anyway.
Also, I personally like “The Shadow out of Time.” Mountains is a pretty good one, though.
Well, this is how I found this site, and seems there are some good minds here! I like what’s been postulated and debated on, though I came in late, and with a biased opinion (leaning, as many others, towards the Cthulhu Mythos – was looking for a MP3 format file of the bloop), and would like to respond with my opinion;
Lovecraft and all his conotations aside, this is very interesting indeed! I recal from “The Call of Cthulhu” a statement that certain times of the year, people who are sensitive to “Cthulhu’s call” may lapse into a dream-like state, as occurs in the Call. Of course, this work is FICTION, and this bloop’s location may have been chosen by Lovecraft to cause this exact type of debate in the future; I do not know when seismic activity became so well monitored, but I could imagine the ingenious H. P. thinking, “well, there is a lot of techtonic activity near this pole of inacessibility, mankind may not ever reach or explore this place for some good time, this might be a good place to plant a myth”.
That was my first (biased) impression. A majority of my life has been dedicated to Lovecraft and other occult myths, and yes, “MoM” is a classic.
I thouroughly enjoyed the more witty and scientific responses, enough to register! :P
As for a scientific evaluation; I see it as this. The “public” grids that are known to mankind are all quite old, in my opinion. Power grid, gasoline grid, telecomunications grid, and now this SOSUS grid… they are all, while new in proportion to the history of the earth, they are fairly old (and thus out of date by today’s standards, with everything advancing). Of course, that’s just a thought. I may be wrong. Malfunctions are more likely to occur the longer a grid exists. To write this “bloop” off as malfunction would be ridiculous, but it is a possibibility that maybe at the depth that the sensors are at, the integrity of the signals “pick-ups” deteriorates? Of course, to set of sensors in that large a range… 3,000 miles? That TOTALLY writes this postulation off as absurd.
However, I mention this for a reason; think about this; what if some NEWER technology were being implemented during 1997, and it caused conflicts/detection by the older scanners. This is what I thought upon hearing it and comparing it to some “whale songs”. It does seem as if it could be organic (biolocial, whatever), but then again, it sounds like it might not be. I read on the bloop wiki that this was it sped up SIXTEEN (16x) times. I’ve worked with synthesizers and music quite a bit, and to speed an audio track up that many times… you’re naturally going to get distortion. To me, at 16x speed, it sounds like a generator either resonating or powering up before promptly powering down. But then again, was raised around conspiracy theoritsts :)
That’s my two cents, and I fell, like OmniNegro did, that this contribution might raise a little more inspiration. :)
Sorry, I’ll turn off my underwater ufo’s car alarm.
Go to the bloop watch link and listen to the wav file that wasn’t sped up. It’s a completely different sound, and convinced me that the sound is NOT from a geological source (and definitely not from a popping bubble).
What you talkin bout Willis?
I think white matter was joking bud. (btw I laughed)
-.- The titanic hit an iceburg, didn’t you watch the film ?!?!?!?!?!!? xD
I think it was me and your mum…doing things…in the water…together.!! xD
I honestly believe that something monstrously big and horrible lives undiscovered in our ocean depths. If a body has not washed ashore, that doesn’t mean the Bloop doesn’t exist, ocean biologists state that squids usually disintegrate completely before they have a chance to wash ashore. Something as big as a dead Bloop may be too heavy to make it to shore from the ocean depths, disintegrating completely before being discovered.
I wonder if Bloop is the real reason why 50 sperm whales beached themselves recently on one of Australia’s shores, and why other types of whales, minke, pilot, etc…, beach themselves frequently as well. Some speculate that it is man made sonar that is causing the whales to lose their directional ability and thus erroneously land on shore as a result. This hasn’t been proven. Since no one really knows the actual reason for whale beachings, why not investigate the possibility that it could be a predator that is chasing them and in desperation to lose their attacker, they end up on land. The whales beaching themselves is akin to horses being driven over cliffs by herders who wanted more pasture for their cattle. In each case, something drove them to suicide.
Something to think about.
If I had 100 million dollars, I would fund exploration of Bloop’s habitat (Point Nemo), the most desolate area on earth, which is closer to the space station in distance then to the nearest shore. I would build a submarine that could withstand 10,000 feet of water pressure and then I would either tether mobile cameras to the sub to go another 10,000 feet down, or maybe Remote Operated Vehicles (ROVs) with cameras, so the cables wouldn’t entangle or get entangled. I would spend a life time thoroughly exploring the ocean bottom. Even if I couldn’t locate a life form like Bloop, imagine the new, wierd, fantastic and vast amount of life forms I could discover. To top things off, I would transmit my discoveries instantaneously to my own cable channel so that all those watching could discover things at the same time as moi!
I’ll keep on fantasizing until then.
i’ll keep fantasizing about your mum
Gandalf fighting Balrog, giving him the smackdown.
My “mum” died a few months ago. Stay away from her, necro-boy!
What’s real interesting is the unidentified sound “Slow Down” detected a little north of the same location as “Bloop” on May 17th, 1997. It too is likely biological in origin and would have to come from an animal much larger than a blue whale. Since “Bloop” occured repeatedly over the summer of 1997, my theory is that “Slow Down” is the dying sounds of a parent, and “Bloop” is the cry of a lost offspring searching for, or mourning, its recently deceased parent.
As for the fact that no one has ever seen this creature, remember its sound originates in the most untraveled region of the Earth. It is near the point on Earth that is farthest from land in any direction. Ships don’t travel through that region, they either bypass it to the north and head for Oceania, or go around Cape Horn to South Africa. Argentina and Chile travel straight south to get to their outpost in Antartica. No one would have seen the thing because nobody passes through that area of the Earth.
Leviathan , just how big does this creature grow if real. Certainly its in the Bible and in Jewish writtings. It is said to at one time been two alive. But God killed one either male or female I forget sorry, so that if this had not accured one man would be left alive on earth. In the last days it written that the creature upon its arrival on the cost of Israel will be killed, AND ITS SKIN LARGE ENOUGH TO COVER THE NATION OF ISRAEL. Yes a tent that covers a whole nation made from a skin of a creature thats alive as I type.
I really thought it is a Leviathan!
Then I went about writing this mysterious phenomenon in the deep. The result is a novel, Over Mount Fuji, which set out to explore this possibility. It’s now up and running at Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Over-Mount-Fuji-Joel-Huan/dp/1849238251/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245008221&sr=1-1
The publication is so fresh, it still doesn’t have the coverskirt on.
Enjoy . . .
it surely does sound creepy, but i’m finding it difficult to fathom how an organism of that size could possibly maintain itself. just imagine how much resources it would need to consume every day… but then again, we know so little about our waters, maybe there is a sufficient amount of food for it to survive down there. in any case, if it exists – its only a matter of time until we find its trace and perhaps even the creature itself. and if it does live up to everyone’s expectations, it will be a living wonder of the earth
I joined this site to shed some light on questions many people have about how it could be alive, how we have never seen it (Or it’s carcass), and how it is a life form at all.
First, how could a creature like this survive at the bottom of the ocean? It’s common for the largest organisms to survive on the smallest lifeforms. Although we known little about the ocean bottom, we do that know it is teeming with small lifeforms. Even though it would take a lot to sustain a creature of this size, we know from Blue Whales that it is possible.
Second, how come we have never seen a carcass? This is easy to explain. Once an animal dies that far down the cold alone is enough to get it to sink to the bottom. If it were to die at the bottom, the cold would practically freeze it and keep it at the bottom. There would be nothing to float to the surface.
Third, I honestly can’t tell you anything about this that you can you quote me on. I am no expert on Sound or anything related to it. But what I do know is that there is a difference between Life form sounds, and random occurances in the ocean. If you have ever listened to an underwater volcanoe, or another underwater occurence, then you yourself can notice how this does not sound similar to those things.
As far as my thoughts, I believe it’s possible for something to be down there. Probable? I doubt it. There would have to be many of those things to keep them from going extinct. And I just can’t see something that large living in such a small area, without us having heard anything more than once.
i know that it is a animal cuz i saw animal X monsters of the deep on youtube
THIS ANIMAL IS THE LEVIATHAN!!!!
It lives on the depths of the ocean.
It lives on the dark
It also spits fire, probably to keep worm knowing that the temperature of the water bellow 6 miles is darn cold.
Its supposed to be a terrific animal in length, and the king above all beast.
Plus its says in the bible that his “faith will be mocked” because nobody will believe in it.
Well unfortunately for scientist, the bible happens to the depict the king of animals at the depth of the sea, rather than on land.
Too much coincidence. Richard Dawkins must be nervous.
It would be sweet to lead an expedition to go find it. And then when I did, I’d be starving because I ran out of food, so I’d have to kill it to find it. And then a thing would pop up that says “You shot 440255 pounds of food. Unfortunately, you can only carry 100 pounds of food back to your wagon”.
I’m no marine biologist, but I do read National Geographic. Over the past year or so I have seen two mini-articles, just one page each, including pictures, about bizarre biological anomalies in the ocean. The barreleye fish has a transparent head and eyes completely unlike anything else’s, I can’t even describe. It’s like they stare through the window in its head where its brain should be. And the much less exotic moray eel has a second set of jaws, in its throat, fully functional, independent of its normal jaws, again biologically unique.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/02/photogalleries/fish-transparent-head-barreleye-picture/
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/09/070905-eel-jaw.html
My apologies for my ignorance of how to hyperlink.
Anyway, what I’m saying is, it seems more likely, considering the weirdness of life in general and ocean life in particular, that there’s a beastie out there with a hitherto unknown way of generating sound than a beastie bigger than a blue whale and still in hiding. The grammar of that sentence was somehow wrong, I apologize.
A couple important points:
1. When they say it isn’t mechanical or geological, they aren’t guessing. Sounds can be processed like a fingerprint. They have thousands and thousands of samples to cross reference and computer-process. When they say they have eliminated a potential source, it is only after being sure they have in fact, eliminated it.
2. The sound in it’s original form was well below the level of human hearing. Stop and consider what that means. If you were in the vicinity of whatever caused it, your body would have been shaken and violently, permanently crushed by a sound your ears would have never detected.
3. 300o miles was not a typo. The distances detected have been consistent in every article I have read about it.
4. If it was a pod of whales, they would have detected multiple voices. The equipment used for this kind of thing and people trained to use it are extremely precise.
5. The thing about organic sound is, more amplitude, more volume, requires size. Bull frogs are louder than toads. Elephants are louder than horses. Whatever it is, its big.
Kiwis are louder than ostriches. Cicadas are louder than sloths.
Furthermore, for an organism to make loud sound by means known to science requires lungs. Fish are silent. Squid are silent. Whales are not. Therefore if, as you say, the creature must be big to make so loud a noise, it must be an extremely large beast that comes to the surface to breathe.
Moreover, to make such a loud sound, it must have very large lungs, bigger even than those of a whale. Thus it must either refill those lungs very slowly, requiring it to stay at the surface for a very long time, or it must refill them quickly and violently, like to the spouting of a whale. Either of these actions would make it near impossible for science, folklore, casual sailors, and all human entities to have not stumbled across it at some point.
Therefore I stick to my supposition – and believe it more firmly now than I did before – that the sound was made by a hitherto unknown creature of modest size with a hitherto unknown way of producing extremely loud sounds without the use of extremely large lungs.
OK, cicadas do not use their lungs to make their sounds and many fish do make sounds.
Mentioning Cicadas brings up a different point: most locust-type creatures have life cycles where they’re only active one year in seven or one year in ten, etc. I think there are groups that remain dormant for as long as twenty-five years. Compared to this sound, which has only been “dormant” not for 13 years, and who knows, maybe that’s just a drop in the hibernation bucket of these lifeforms’ lives.
On another note, while the blue whale is the largest mammal, it is not the largest lifeform. For that, we need to look at the plant kingdom, whose Aspen “groves” (the trees are actually all ‘stems’ of a single seed) and the great barrier reef both take the top spots. Now, one thing I know about plant life is that it’s creepily good at mimicking shit when it needs to. Also, carnivorous plants, unlike carnivorous animals, rarely need to feed. Indeed, they could feed in a way similar to cicadas, minus the literal hibernation part.
Thus, the sound *could* have been made by a lifeform many times larger than the blue whale. Not an animal lifeform, but a plant. One that, like a pitcher plant, would benefit greatly from mimicking something that the animals around them find desirable. Since they can’t emit smells easily, and color/shape is useless that deep, where vision is less important, sound is the next logical option.
The scientists shouldn’t be looking for some whale or squid, they should be looking for underwater venus fly traps.
It’s Cthulhu! That is the only explanation!
I would like to make a suggestion. Bear in mind this is one of the first things that popped into my head while I was analizing the bloop. Maybe the bloop was not caused by a huge sea monster the likes of which was never seen or heard before maybe the curious sound was made by a group of whales or or things that coincidentally made their sounds at the same time comining to make the bloop we know today.
The sound has never been heard again. This could be an example of the coincidentally of all the sounds combining.
I myself highly doubt that it was made by a sea creature we never saw before.
This theory does not in any way rule out the possibility of there being more undiscovered creatures in the sea.
Thanks for reading.
Theres is a recent documentary in Animal Planet about the truth of the mermaid. The biologist believe that
this “bloop”are made by the mermaid. Just type in “Animal Planet mermaid” and you can enjoy the whole 8
videos.
What if its not a whale and we asume anything, In October 2008, members of the networking website Bebo beamed A Message From Earth, a high-power transmission at Gliese 581. Now what if we assume that years ago another highly developed planet did the same. What if the bloop is a disorded transmission from another planet or maybe even a transmission in a different language from another planet. Do you think this is possible?
To All,
It is hilarious to read the comments of so many of you who do not understand sound or its propagation through the ocean. What you hear in your every day lives and the understanding you have of sound propagation based on life experiences and over exposure to your personal music player has nothing to do with sound propagation in the ocean.
First off, sound does NOT travel in a straight line in the ocean. Sound itself is lazy and will travel in a path of least resistance. Because increases in water density do to increased pressure, increased salinity, or decreased temperatures would cause sound to go faster, it bends away from this increase density. In other words sound will bend towards the path of least resistance.
Secondly, the speed of sound in water as around 4850 feet per second. It travels very fast and because of the density of water, very far. Low frequencies, which is what this phenomena was, travel even farther. While on submarines, I used our long (over 1000 feet long) towed sonar array to track low frequency contacts over a thousand miles away. It is quite easy with the correct equipment.
Third…..the spacing of the SOSUS array. Yes the array is spaced by a couple thousand miles, however, each array consist of more than one hydrophone. They are located and spaced to take advantage of acoustic conditions and are placed in strategic locations to listen for underwater activity in places that would be considered “areas of interest.” Regardless of their composition and placements, they are extremely sensitive and accurate when it comes to the detection and analysis of sound.
Finally…lets not forget the “Boing Fish” This was a mysterious acoustic phenomena that was first recorded in the 1950’s. It is regularly heard in or near the arctic regions year round. Scientist for years could not figure out the origins of the sound until the 1990’s when it was discovered that the noise was made by the Minke whale. Prior to figuring out the source of the noise it was officially called the “boing fish” in military documents and manuals on acoustic sources and sounds. Here again is an example of an unexplained noise whose source is unknown for years before being discovered.
As a conspiracy theorist, it it possible that Base 211, Neu Schwabenland Antarctica (secret Nazi base from world war 2) is still functioning? Possibly one of the Wunderwaffe’s? Die Glocke? UFO? Seeing that the sound was recorded fairly close to Antarctica maybe they were testing out a weapon, producing loud but extremely low frequency sounds? i think if the sound is heard again that some sort of investigation should be sent, but there is also the Navy sonar weapon theory. So many questions, so little evidence.
I believe it could be a Leviathan Melvilli which went extinct around 12 million years ago along with the megalodon it was a top predator It had no known predators some say the megalodon feared it some say they were allies but whatever the case is. I believe it is an even more giant Levithan Melvilli than its recorded maximum length of (50-70ft long) I believe it’s one thats 2 or 3 times that length the waters of the bloop sound were over 7000ft deep which is home to giant squid and whales. Since no recorded sharks have been known to adapt to the cold depths of the Antarctic, so you can count the magalodon out. Levi, fed on other whales and even squid I believe it stunted its growth and feeds on giant squid and whales down in the cold depths of the arctic.