Sounds from the deep baffle scientists

http://www.ananova.com/ ^ | Story filed: 03:47 Thursday 13th June 2002

[chasio649]

Sounds from the deep baffle scientists

Mysterious giant beasts may lurk in the darkest depths of the ocean, making whale-like noises that are baffling scientists.

Researchers have nicknamed the strange unidentified sound picked up by undersea microphones "Bloop".

While it bears the varying frequency hallmark of marine animals, it is far more powerful than the calls made by any creature known on Earth.

In 1997, Bloop was detected by sensors up to 3,000 miles apart, New Scientist magazine reports.

One suggestion is that the sound is coming from giant squid, which live at extreme depths of up to two and a half miles.

However Phil Lobel, a marine biologist at Boston University in Massachusetts, US, doubts that giant squid are the source of Bloop.

"Cephalopods have no gas-filled sac, so they have no way to make that type of noise," he said. "Though you can never rule anything out completely, I doubt it."

The system picking up Bloop and other strange noises from the deep is a military relic of the Cold War. In the 1960s the US Navy set up an array of underwater microphones, or hydrophones, around the globe to track Soviet submarines.

The listening stations lie at a depth where sound waves become trapped in a layer of water known as the "deep sound channel". Here temperature and pressure cause sound waves to keep travelling without being scattered.

Scientists believe most very low frequency noises - given names such as Train, Whistle, Slowdown and Upsweep - can be explained by ocean currents, volcanic activity , or the movement of Antarctic ice. But Bloop remains a tantalising mystery.

[chasio649]

I was a sonarmen on submarines in the Navy....i heard so much unidentified sounds in the ocean...i just took it for granted that it couldn't be explained.

[Paul Atreides]

Maybe Janet is frenching a walrus.

[RightWhale]

Gas would be the key. Methane probably. A dietary disturbance from a giant creature that eats huge thermal vent worms.

[Jen]

Pay up.
Ammo costs.

"We have to stay vigilant, we have to fight, we can not let the RATS
destroy our Republic! We have made a difference. Free Republic is that tool for
us to gather, meet like minded individuals and fight for all we believe.
Keep this web site running. The liberals hate us, so we must be on the right track!"
- WIMom

Free Republic is funded solely by donations from readers.
Donations and official correspondence should be mailed to:
Free Republic, LLC, PO Box 9771, Fresno, CA 93794

Support Free Republic by secure credit card.

Send PayPal direct to JimRob@psnw.com

[Willie Green]

IOW, "whale farts".

[RightWhale]

Sounding whales don't fart. They wait until they are near or on the surface. Simple physics, fluid mechanics.

[AD from SpringBay]

Maybe Hillary is back to bathing.

[Don Myers]

Ummmm...shall we wait for the real life, It Came From The Sea?

[Willie Green]

I'd think just the opposite: the deeper they go, it gets squeezed right out of 'em.

[Tom Pain]

Earth Farts!

BLOOOOOOOOP!!

[TC Rider]

Maybe they're picking up that pistol range in Louisiana.

[TC Rider]

..or the woodpeckers.

[BenLurkin]

Beasts in the deep?
Rosie. Roseanne and Oprah scuba together?

[RightWhale]

yeah, sure. PV = nRT

Assuming the temperature in a whale remains about the same, the volume of the ideal gas in inversely proportional to the pressure. At great depth where the pressure is 1000 times what it is on the surface, the ideal gas is compressed to 1/1000 of its volume. Fart gas might not be the ideal gas, but it acts like an ideal gas. Assuming intestinal gas production continues at the same rate at great depth as on the surface, after half an hour there will be a fair amount by weight but at small, insignificant volume. When the whale comes back up, the gas expands by a factor of 1000. That's when it has to let go. A whale ascent from the deeps is accompanied by a great deal of farting and burping. The real question is whether the whale surfaces ahead of or later than the bubbles.

[nomad]

Ummm! Fried calamari, can you imagine the rings those guys would make?

[John Locke]

The mystery is solved...

[Willie Green]

Fart gas might not be the ideal gas,

That's a heckuva understatement!

Assuming intestinal gas production continues at the same rate at great depth as on the surface, after half an hour there will be a fair amount by weight but at small, insignificant volume.

I don't know that this is a valid assumption.
In my humble experience, fart gas production doesn't seem to be a continuous process, but in rather abrupt, discrete batches. (and sometimes indiscrete as well.)

I do, however, agree with what would happen if the whale tried to "hold it" until he/she reached the surface: it'd be like a humongous puffer fish blown up bigger than the Goodyear Blimp.

[arkfreepdom]

It's why you fart when you first arrive at a ski resort. Also look at the items in a store at high elevation....such as Yoplait yogurt....it looks like the top is going to explode.

[etcetera]

"The real question is whether the whale surfaces ahead of or later than the bubbles."

LOL! That's a good one! Inquiring minds want to know...8-)