I remember reading about this ages ago, just came across a new mention of it in New Scientist:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg2 ... bloop.html
The Bloop
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youcantryreachingme
- Approved Member
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- Location: Sydney, Australia
Re: The Bloop
Sounds to me like a bubble.
Picture the clam-shell decoration in your fishtank. It slowly fills with air until ... bloooop! The air escapes and there's a gentle knocking as the clam shell closes again.
If this sound was recorded periodically during 1997, perhaps there was some sort of "clam shell equivalent" structure which was filling with some gas. From time to time the gas escaped, creating the sound and the knocking as the structure "closed" again.
I realise the audio is sped up by 16x but surely if you enlarge the size of the object, reduce and the size of the vent for gas to escape, you might get close to hearing audio of that quality and for that duration?
During the same year either the gas source expired (as with say, I imagine, a layer of gas trapped under the ocean floor, or the excretion of some organic colony of creatures where for some reason that population has collapsed) or the structure responsible for trapping the gas then releasing it periodically collapsed (for example, allowing a permanent stream of gas to escape, presuming the source has not expired, thus preventing the periodic "bloop" sound).
About all we do know is the source seemed to emanate from a single location, favouring the idea of a fixed structure creating the sound, rather than a mobile organism (in my opinion).
Picture the clam-shell decoration in your fishtank. It slowly fills with air until ... bloooop! The air escapes and there's a gentle knocking as the clam shell closes again.
If this sound was recorded periodically during 1997, perhaps there was some sort of "clam shell equivalent" structure which was filling with some gas. From time to time the gas escaped, creating the sound and the knocking as the structure "closed" again.
I realise the audio is sped up by 16x but surely if you enlarge the size of the object, reduce and the size of the vent for gas to escape, you might get close to hearing audio of that quality and for that duration?
During the same year either the gas source expired (as with say, I imagine, a layer of gas trapped under the ocean floor, or the excretion of some organic colony of creatures where for some reason that population has collapsed) or the structure responsible for trapping the gas then releasing it periodically collapsed (for example, allowing a permanent stream of gas to escape, presuming the source has not expired, thus preventing the periodic "bloop" sound).
About all we do know is the source seemed to emanate from a single location, favouring the idea of a fixed structure creating the sound, rather than a mobile organism (in my opinion).
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forestguy
- Long Time Contributor
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- Location: Brisbane, Queensland
Re: The Bloop
Dunno - I'd want to hear it slowed down first.youcantryreachingme wrote:I realise the audio is sped up by 16x but surely if you enlarge the size of the object, reduce and the size of the vent for gas to escape, you might get close to hearing audio of that quality and for that duration?
We also know that "it is far louder than any whale song, so a marine creature that made it would either be bigger than any whale, or a much more efficient producer of sound".youcantryreachingme wrote:About all we do know is the source seemed to emanate from a single location, favouring the idea of a fixed structure creating the sound, rather than a mobile organism (in my opinion).
I'm not sure how well that tallies with venting gas - would that produce sound more efficiently than a whale? If anyone wants to figure it out here's some info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underwater_acoustics
"What is reported is different to what is remembered which is different to what was seen which is different to what was present."