Listen to The Pacific 'Bloop' Sound That Flummoxed Scientists For 8 Years

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.

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.

Between the Ross Sea and the Bransfield Straits is where the bloop most likely came from.

Icequakes happen when glaciers break in the ocean. A loud pop or booming sound can be heard when the cracking occurs. Climate change is making icequakes more common.

Global temperatures can cause glaciers to melt and cause an icequake.

The original article was published by Business Insider.