ILLUSTRATES Icarus Yuji
Duck, frog or squid?
SOUND NAME: Quacker
WHERE: North Atlantic and Arctic
During World War II, a Soviet submarine recorded strange noises described by the crew as “quacking” – the onomatopoeia that the Russians use to represent the croaking of a frog. But the sonars didn’t detect anything! The scientists’ best hypothesis was that it was a giant squid, which was not picked up on sonar because it lacks bones. The mystery lingers…
shook general
SOUND NAME: Bloop
WHERE: Pacific Ocean
It was recorded only once, in 1997, by NOAA, but it fascinated with its gigantic range: more than 5 km! Many thought it was a sea monster. However, researchers assured that no animal could produce such an intense sound. Today, it is assumed that it was an “icequake” (a giant crack in an iceberg) that happened in Antarctica.
almost stopping
SOUND NAME: Slow Down
WHERE: Pacific
Also from 1997, it got its name (“to decelerate”, in English) because its frequency slowly decreased for about seven minutes. It was loud enough to be picked up from a distance of 2 km, but it was never heard from again. Science resorted to two traditional hypotheses: first, a giant squid was thought of; now they think it was an iceberg that was abruptly stopped by the seabed
Swallow the cry!
SOUND NAME: Julia
WHERE: Equatorial Pacific
On March 1, 1999, autonomous hydrophones recorded something very strange. It sounded like… a person whimpering? It lasted about 15 seconds, with a frequency between 0 and 50 hertz. NOAA scientists think it was a giant iceberg from Antarctica crawling on the ocean floor
Thor is furious
SOUND NAME: Mistpouffers
WHERE: USA, Bangladesh and Japan
Described as cannon blasts fired from a distance, these booms were witnessed in various locations such as Seneca Lake in New York. Therefore, it was also known as «Seneca’s Weapons». Submerged gases whose bubbles burst at the surface could create something like this, but not as loud. In the absence of explanations, there have even been people saying that it was hammered by the Norse god Thor
paramedic whale
SOUND NAME: Upsweep
WHERE: South Pacific
When this sound effect was recorded, in August 1991, the first suspicions fell on whales. But sounds emitted by living beings have variation in pitch. There was no such strange noise – it just resembled an ambulance siren. The doubt continues to this day. A recent hypothesis says that it could have been caused by the evaporation of water in contact with the ultra hot lava from underwater volcanic eruptions.
Half a century of doubts
SOUND NAME: Biopato
WHERE: Southern Ocean
Since the 1960s, a strange sound has intrigued NOAA researchers. It sounded like a quacking duck and was often picked up by submarines during winter and spring. Mystery solved in 2014: it wasn’t a duck, but minke whales communicating with each other when they surfaced. The discovery should help science better understand the behavior of this animal
full steam ahead
SOUND NAME: Train and Whistle
WHERE: Equatorial Pacific
Two sounds heard in 1997 (yes, 1997 again!) were reminiscent of steam being expelled with great force. The first, in March, sounded like a locomotive. The most accepted theory is that it is the result of the friction of an iceberg with the bottom of the sea. The second, in July, referred to a kettle. It is most likely linked to active volcanoes in the depths of the sea.
SOURCES: NOAA and ListVerse, G1, HowStuffWorks, and Scientific American websites
CONSULTANCY: Simon Boxall, professor of Ocean and Earth Science at the University of Southampton (UK), and Alexandre Monteiro, professor at the Institute of Archeology and Paleosciences and Nova Lisboa University (Portugal)
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