The Bloop: The mysterious, deafening noise of the ocean

In 1997, a mysterious sound was discovered in the ocean. For years, the long, low-frequency noise was the loudest underwater sound ever recorded, and without any explanation, scientists called it a blob.

Theories about the origin of the strange sound were many. Others claimed it was the echo of an underwater military training exercise, while others spoke of a huge, unknown creature making these sounds, sparking the interest of cryptozoologists.

It was detected by two hydrophone arrays 5,000 kilometers apart. To travel that far, the sound would have had to be very loud, louder than any sound an animal could make.

Researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the United States were able to narrow down the location of the sound source to somewhere on the southern coast of Chile, in the Pacific Ocean. Over the years, researchers placed more hydrophones near Antarctica and realized they were getting closer to the source of the Blob.

There, on the most isolated landmass, they were finally able to find the source of that deafening noise at the bottom of the sea in 2005. It was the sound of a cold earthquake, an iceberg breaking off and breaking off from an Antarctic glacier. Often, these pieces of ice can be the size of an entire city.

Data collected between 2005 and 2010 confirmed what scientists had suspected, as new hydrophones recorded sounds similar to blobs in the ocean near Antarctica. By 2012, NOAA hydrophones were recording tens of thousands of Bloops each year.

As Antarctic ice loss accelerates and larger chunks of glaciers break off into icebergs, the Bloop is more powerful than ever. At least now we know it doesn't come from some unknown monster at the bottom of the sea…