There was a strange sound in the southern Pacific Ocean in 1997.
There were theories about the origin of the sound.
The sound was caused by the cracking of an ice shelf.
Scientists recorded a loud noise in the summer of 1997 from an area west of the coast. They called it the bloop.
The loud, ultra-low Frequency sound was recorded on hydrophones while researchers searched for underwater volcanoes. The microphones were developed by the US Navy in the Pacific.
One of the loudest underwater sounds ever recorded was made by a person underwater. You can hear the bloop 16 times.
A sound from the deep ocean is made by a woman.
There were many theories about the ocean sound's origins.
It was thought to be the sound of ships, a giant squid, or a new sea creature. Humans haven't explored all of the oceans.
Christopher Fox, chief scientist of the Acoustic Monitoring Project of the Pacific Marine Environmental Lab, told The Atlantic for a short film about the sound in 2017:
Scientists had a hard time figuring out what made the booming noise.
It wasn't until 2005 that scientists began to understand the bloop's origin.
The agency was able to explain what the bloop was after gathering all the data.
The sound of an icequake was created by the cracking of an ice shelf.
The sounds of ice breaking up and cracking are the main source of sound in the southern ocean. Over the course of a year, tens of thousands of icequakes are created by the cracking and melting of sea ice and glaciers into the ocean.
The most likely location for the bloop was between the Bransfield Straits and the Ross Sea.
Icequakes happen when glaciers break in the ocean. A loud pop or booming sound can be heard when the cracking occurs. Icequakes are becoming more common with climate change according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
Global temperatures can cause glaciers to melt and cause an icequake.
Business Insider has an article on it.
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