The Bloop:- Mystery continues

The Bloop:- Mystery continues

Bloop was an ultra-low-frequency and extremely powerful underwater sound detected by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 1997. The sound is consistent with the noises generated by icequakes in large icebergs, or large icebergs scraping the ocean floor, then by 2002 was believed to also be consistent with large marine animals. The NOAA believes it has solved the mystery and now thinks the noise was ice-related.

In the summer of 1997, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration picked up a sound from deep beneath the Pacific. The sound seemed to come from an animal far larger than any we've ever seen. This was the Bloop.

The Bloop is one of about a half-dozen unexplained sounds that the NOAA's Acoustic Monitoring Project has picked up in its more than twenty years listening to the noises of the Pacific. While some of these sounds seem to have relatively obvious explanations, a few really are baffling, and they represent one of science's great unanswered mysteries. Let's now take a closer listen to the Bloop and five other strange underwater sounds.

Back in the Cold War, the US Navy set up a series of massive arrays of microphones throughout the world's oceans. these, unsurprisingly enough, meant as a way to listen in on Soviet submarines, and they took advantage of a phenomenon known as the deep sound channel, an ocean layer where the speed of sound becomes virtually nothing and low-frequency soundwaves that enter the channel can become trapped, bouncing around in this layer for thousands of miles.

Advertisement

This phenomenon allowed the arrays of the Sound Surveillance System, or SOSUS, to be able to detect even relatively weak sounds from hundreds of miles away. With the end of the Cold War around 1990, the arrays' original 30-year mission came to an end and was replaced with a new civilian function of just generally monitoring the sounds the ocean. For the last twenty years, the NOAA and its Equatorial Pacific Ocean autonomous hydrophone array have been doing just that.

For the most part, it's not hard to identify the sounds that are emitted. Whales are a frequent source of low frequency noises, as are volcanic activity and iceberg movement, plus all the human-made devices still at work under the sea. These all have their own distinctive soundprint, so that there's rarely any question of where a sound came from. But every so often, the Acoustic Monitoring Project picks up a sound that defies explanation. Here are the six sounds that the NOAA officially considers unexplained. All of these have been sped up between 16 and 20 times their real speed so that we actually hear them.

The most famous of these sounds is this one, known as the Bloop. It was recorded in 1997 originating from a point about 1,500 miles west of the southern Chilean coast. It was powerful enough to be picked up on sensors located up to 3,000 miles away, making it one of the most powerful noises ever recorded underwater. The sound lasted for just over a minute and has not been detected since. It should be pointed out now that the NOAA has checked with the Navy and other groups to rule out human-made sources in this and the rest of these cases. We'll come back to other possible explanations for the Bloop in a little bit but let's first examine the other sounds.

This is Upsweep, which was first recorded in August 1991. Unlike most of the other sounds on this list, it can still be heard. While the noise is strongest in the spring and fall, it appears to be getting generally weaker over time. It's located somewhere deep in the South Pacific near Antarctica, located about 2,500 miles due west of the very southern tip of South America. It was initially thought that this sound might be created by fin whales, but in 1996 researchers Emile Okal and Jacques Talandier argued that there wasn't enough variation in the tone for it to be biological - whales wouldn't be able to communicate much if they only used these same tones over and over. They argued that this was some unusual acoustic phenomenon linked to volcanic activity in the region, perhaps the result of seawater and volcanic gas interacting and creating a resonance pattern. Sure enough, a French research vessel found volcanic seamounts in the region, which makes this the most likely explanation.

Let's move on to Slow Down, which was first recorded on May 19, 1997. Like Upsweep, the sound can still be heard several times each year. The sound was detected about 2,000 miles west of Peru, but its actual origin is much more southerly, and it's possible that the sound actually originates in the Antarctic. Its basic sound profile matches the sound of objects rubbing together in a massive friction event, such as icebergs calving or a sudden glacial movement. These seem like the most likely explanations for Slow Down, but as yet we haven't been able to identify any specific sources for these noises, so the mystery remains.

Next up is Train, so named because it recalls the sound of a distant train. This one was recorded on March 5, 1997, although we don't know exactly where the sound came from. The most likely explanation for this one, according to Christopher Fox, is the movement of ocean currents, as he explained in 2002: "Moving fluids generate vibrations, just like blowing air through a clarinet. If you have moving ocean water and the right conditions coming around a seamount or something, that could generate sound."

Finally, we have Whistle, which was recorded on July 7, 1997. This one was only picked up by a single hydrophone located about 1,700 miles west of Costa Rica, and the precise origin of the sound is unknown. There aren't currently any preferred explanations for this sound.

So, where does this leave us? We've got a pretty decent handle on the origins of Upsweep, Slow Down, and Train, although none of these can be considered confirmed explanations. Julia and Whistle are harder to pin down with a specific explanation, but they don't baffle scientists or inflame the imagination in quite the same way that Bloop has.

It's worth noting as a general principle that there's a big difference between things that are full-on unexplainable and others that are simply unexplained. While the former might force us to consider some pretty out there hypotheses in an attempt to make sense of what's going on, the latter is a more mundane kind of mysterious. We don't know what caused these sounds, but that's more a product of having precious little data to work with and the Pacific Ocean being a very, very big place. Indeed, the depths of the Pacific constitute the largest unexplored frontier on the planet. It would be amazing if we could explain everything we encounter in it.

But if there's one noise that is dangerously close to tipping over from unexplained to unexplainable, it's the Bloop. While ice calving has been thrown around as a possible explanation - its southerly location does make that a decently likely possibility - the profile of the sound far more closely matches that of an animal. And that's where the whole thing gets really strange.

If the Bloop was made by an animal, then it seemingly must be larger than any other known organism. Even the blue whale, whose record length is about 110 feet, would not be nearly big enough to account for the Bloop. Could such a leviathan exist? It's possible, and the Bloop might be considered the strongest evidence for such a beast...but it's also pretty much the only such evidence. There's not a shred of evidence to support the existence of what we might call a supergiant whale, and even with the entire Pacific Ocean to hide in, it's difficult to credit that a species that must continually come to the surface to breath could completely hide its existence.

The other possibility is some sort of massive squid. These creatures do serve as a catch-all for all that's still mysterious about the ocean depths, and our extremely limited firsthand knowledge of them makes it easier to believe a gigantic Blooping squid could maybe be hiding deep in the Pacific. There's a couple problems with this though.

That doesn't leave us with much room to maneuver. It may be worth splitting a hair and pointing out the animal in question wouldn't necessarily have to be larger than any other - just far, far better at making low frequency sounds. That doesn't get us any further to identifying the Blooper, but at least it relieves a bit of the pressure in having to find a 200-foot whale or something like it. Still, all we have to work on is a single, poorly understood noise from 1997, so unless we hear a new Bloop, all we're likely to have is speculation and guesswork.

Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the preferred fanciful explanation for the Bloop. It just so happens that the origin of the Bloop noise is located in the same general part of the southern Pacific Ocean as the location H.P. Lovecraft gave in his 1928 short story The Call of Cthulhu for the underwater, extra-dimensional city of R'lyeh. The coincidence isn't that spooky - the two locations are about a thousand miles apart - but the two are close enough together that Lovecraft fans have suggested the Bloop might well be the sound of a snoozing Cthulhu.

Honestly, at this point, it seems roughly as believable as any other explanation. It's really just nice to know the oceans are still keeping at least a few seriously hardcore mysteries.

Original Link:-http://io9.com/5883622/meet-the-bloop-the-mysterious-sound-from-the-bottom-of-the-pacific-ocean

Above link has been used to copy this Article. Keep reading for more mysteries.

Bermuda Triangle:-Science or Myth

Bermuda Triangle:-Science or Myth

In last Post we understood what is Bermuda Triangle and where is it, But in this post we will try to learn some Scientific explanations for this.

Of course, despite this now being repeated as an explanation for disappearances in the Triangle on numerous documentaries and articles since then, it turns out magnetic variation is something ship captains (and other explorers) have known about and had to deal with pretty much as long as there have been ships and compasses. Dealing with magnetic declination is really just “Navigation by Compass” 101 and nothing to be concerned about, nor anything that would seriously throw off any experienced navigator.
In 2005, the Coast Guard revisited the issue after a TV producer in London inquired about it for a program he was working on.  In this case, they correctly changed their tune about the magnetic field bit stating,

Many explanations have cited unusual magnetic properties within the boundaries of the Triangle. Although the world’s magnetic fields are in constant flux, the “Bermuda Triangle” has remained relatively undisturbed.  It is true that some exceptional magnetic values have been reported within the Triangle, but none to make the Triangle more unusual than any other place on Earth.

The modern Bermuda Triangle legend didn’t get started until 1950 when an article written by Edward Van Winkle Jones was published by the Associated Press. Jones reported several incidences of disappearing ships and planes in the Bermuda Triangle, including five US Navy torpedo bombers that vanished on December 5, 1945, and the commercial airliners “Star Tiger” and “Star Ariel” which disappeared on January 30, 1948 and January 17, 1949 respectively. All told, about 135 individuals were unaccounted for, and they all went missing around the Bermuda Triangle. As Jones said, “they were swallowed without a trace.”
It was a 1955 book, The Case for the UFO, by M. K. Jessup that started pointing fingers at alien life forms. After all, no bodies or wreckage had yet been discovered. By 1964, Vincent H. Gaddis—who coined the term “Bermuda Triangle”—wrote an article saying over 1000 lives had been claimed by the area. He also agreed that it was a “pattern of strange events.” The Bermuda Triangle obsession hit its peak in the early 1970s with the publication of several paperback books about the topic, including the bestseller by Charles Berlitz, The Bermuda Triangle.
However, critic Larry Kusche, who published The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved in 1975, argued that other authors had exaggerated their numbers and hadn’t done any proper research. They presented some disappearance cases as “mysteries” when they weren’t mysteries at all, and some reported cases hadn’t even happened within the Bermuda Triangle.

After extensively researching the issue, Kusche concluded that the number of disappearances that occurred within the Bermuda Triangle wasn’t actually greater than in any other similarly trafficked area of the ocean, and that other writers presented misinformation—such as not reporting storms that occurred on the same day as disappearances, and sometimes even making it seem as though the conditions had been calm for the purposes of creating a sensational story. In short: previous Bermuda Triangle authors didn’t do their research and either knowingly or unintentionally “made it up.”
The book did such a thorough job of debunking the myth that it effectively ended most of the Bermuda Triangle hype. When authors like Berlitz and others were unable to refute Kusche’s findings, even the most steadfast of believers had difficulty remaining confident in the sensationalized Bermuda Triangle narrative. Nevertheless, many magazine articles, TV shows, and movies have continued to feature the Bermuda Triangle.
Because the number of disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle is no greater than any other similarly trafficked area of the world’s oceans, they don’t really need an explanation. But if you’re still convinced that the Triangle is a ship graveyard, relative to other regions that get around the same number of travelers, here are some natural explanations from the Coast Guard to combat some of the “alien” and other fantastical theories.

The majority of disappearances can be attributed to the area’s unique features. The Gulf Stream, a warm ocean current flowing from the Gulf of Mexico around the Florida Straits northeastward toward Europe, is extremely swift and turbulent. It can quickly erase any evidence of a disaster.
The unpredictable Caribbean-Atlantic storms that give birth to waves of great size as well as waterspouts often spell disaster for pilots and mariners. (Not to mention that the area is in “hurricane alley.”) The topography of the ocean floor varies from extensive shoals to some of the deepest marine trenches in the world. With the interaction of strong currents over reefs, the topography is in a constant state of flux and breeds development of new navigational hazards.
Not to be underestimated is the human factor. A large number of pleasure boats travel the water between Florida’s Gold Coast (the most densely populated area in the world) and the Bahamas. All to often, crossings are attempted with too small a boat, insufficient knowledge of the area’s hazards and lack of good seamanship.

Original Link :- http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/01/myth-bermuda-triangle/

Keep Reading for More Posts

Bermuda triangle

Bermuda Triangle:- Unknown Mystery

The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a loosely defined region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean, where a number of aircraft and ships are said to have disappeared under mysterious circumstances. According to the US Navy, the triangle does not exist, and the name is not recognized by the US Board on Geographic Names.Popular culture has attributed various disappearances to the paranormal or activity by extraterrestrial beings. Documented evidence indicates that a significant percentage of the incidents were spurious, inaccurately reported, or embellished by later authors. In a 2013 study, the World Wide Fund for Nature identified the world’s 10 most dangerous waters for shipping, but the Bermuda Triangle was not among them.

The Bermuda Triangle is a large area of ocean between Florida, Puerto Rico, and Bermuda.

The Bermuda Triangle’s bad reputation started with Christopher Columbus. According to his log, on October 8, 1492, Columbus looked down at his compass and noticed that it was giving weird readings. He didn’t alert his crew at first, because having a compass that didn’t point to magnetic north may have sent the already on edge crew into a panic. This was probably a good decision considering three days later when Columbus simply spotted a strange light, the crew threatened to return to Spain.
This and other reported compass issues in the region gave rise to the myth that compasses will all be off in the Triangle, which isn’t correct, or at least is an exaggeration of what is actually happening as you’ll see.  Despite this, in 1970 the U.S. Coast Guard, attempting to explain the reasons for disappearances in the Triangle, stated:

First, the “Devil’s Triangle” is one of the two places on earth that a magnetic compass does point towards true north. Normally it points toward magnetic north. The difference between the two is known as compass variation. The amount of variation changes by as much as 20 degrees as one circumnavigates the earth. If this compass variation or error is not compensated for, a navigator could find himself far off course and in deep trouble.

Intersted, We will look more into it in Next Blog.

Mermaids

Real Mermaid Found Dead :- Real Pictures No Fake

Mermaid found at Porbandar and Karachi beach, oh really?

For those of you who grew up following the conventional wisdom of ‘you believe only when you see’, these images could be startling! In today’s day and age when computer imagery and special effects are employed to make any visual jazzy, and exciting, if you believe only because you see, and then spread the information, you could possibly lead to more confusion and chaos.

These pictures, supposedly of a mermaid (or Jalpari), apparently found in Karachi, Pakistan, and subsequently spotted in Porbander, Gujarat, has caught many eyeballs in the internet space. Here’s she, the angelic Ariel, the in-flesh version of the cutesy mermaid of Disney’s The Little Mermaid series. But is she for real? Or are these some leaked out pictures straight from the sets of a Hollywood movie? Or is this just a prank to elicit ‘look- how-I-made-em-fools’ reactions? We, for sure, have no clue!
What we do know, for sure, is that while Miss M’s fin and her axial appendages may make the visual look real, her sharp facial features, her carved lips and high cheekbones make her the glamorous beauty of the underwater world. “Oh, she must be the sexiest mermaid around,” squealed someone. Maybe the ‘mermaid’ has just taken a leap of faith, after realising her rare beauty, landed on our shores, perhaps to participate in our de rigueur beauty pageants!
PS: Though Miss M’s shiny diving suit looks pretty impressive, we wonder where her oxygen mask is.

More mind blowing facts in Next Blog..