Bloop
Coordinates: 50°S 100°W / 50.000000°S 100.000000°W
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) in 1997. The source of the sound remains unknown.
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[edit] Analysis
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 several times by the Equatorial Pacific Ocean autonomous hydrophone array,[1] which uses U.S. Navy equipment originally designed to detect Soviet submarines.
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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." The NOAA's Dr. Christopher Fox does not believe its origin is man-made, such as a submarine or bomb, or familiar geological events such as volcanoes or earthquakes. While the audio profile of the Bloop does resemble that of a living creature[2], the source is a mystery both because it is different from known sounds and because it was several times louder than the loudest recorded animal, the blue whale.[3] Five other significant unexplained sounds have been named by NOAA: Julia, Train, Slow Down, Whistle, and Upsweep.[4][5][6]
Dr. Christopher Fox of the NOAA speculated that the Bloop may be ice calving in Antarctica.[7] A year later journalist David Wolman paraphrased Dr. Fox who suggested it was likely animal in origin.[8]
[edit] In popular culture
- In The Loch by Steve Alten, the Bloop is the call of an undiscovered species of giant eel.
- In Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings by Christopher Moore, the source of the Bloop is a living colony known as the "Goo".
- In Frank Schätzing's novel The Swarm, the Bloop is the speech of the intelligent species, the Yrr.
- The roughly-triangulated origin of the Bloop is approximately 950 nautical miles (1,760 km) from the more precisely-described location of R'lyeh, a sunken extra-dimensional city written of by H. P. Lovecraft in his famous short story The Call of Cthulhu, wherein the eponymous dead-but-dreaming creature Cthulhu awakens. Even with this distance separating them, they have been frequently linked.[9][10]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Acoustics Monitoring Program". http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/acoustics/sounds/bloop.html. Retrieved 2012-01-16.
- ^ David Wolman (2002-06-15). "Calls from the deep". New Scientist. http://www.science.org.au/nova/newscientist/102ns_001.htm. Retrieved 2012-01-16.
- ^ "Animal Records". Smithsonian National Zoological Park. http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/AnimalRecords/default.cfm. Retrieved 2010-09-26.
- ^ "Tuning in to a deep sea monster". CNN. 2002-06-13. http://archives.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/06/13/bloop/. Retrieved 2010-01-06.
- ^ "Acoustics Monitoring Program". http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/acoustics/specs_all.html. Retrieved 2010-01-06.
- ^ David Wolman (2002-06-15). "Calls from the deep". New Scientist. http://www.science.org.au/nova/newscientist/102ns_001.htm. Retrieved 2012-01-16.
- ^ "Scientists tune in to sounds of the sea". CNN. 2001-09-07. http://archives.cnn.com/2001/TECH/science/09/07/listening.ocean/. Retrieved 2012-01-16.
- ^ David Wolman (2002-06-15). "Calls from the deep". New Scientist. http://www.science.org.au/nova/newscientist/102ns_001.htm. Retrieved 2012-01-16.
- ^ Jonathan Strickland. "Cthulhu goes Bloop". How Stuff Works. http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/arts/literature/cthulhu2.htm. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
- ^ Sean Michael Ragan (2009-11-16). "The Bloop of Cthulhu". http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/11/the_bloop_of_cthulhu.html. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
