Bloop

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v \- t \- e

The Bloop is a famous oceanic fart detected by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 1997. The sound was picked up on SOSUS -- a Cold War relic, originally designed to track Soviet submarines. Although the Bloop's acoustic signature makes it look biological in origin, it is much much louder than anything previously recorded and dwarfs sound by even the largest whales. The Bloop is a favorite among cryptozoologists, who think it demonstrates the existence of some type of cryptid or alien. NOAA has suggested that the bloop was most likely produced by an icequake.

SOSUS has picked up other unusual sounds, which have been labelled "Train", "Whistle", "Slowdown", "Upsweep" and "Julia". Slowdown, Train and Julia are again most likely probably produced by ice. Upsweep might have been produced by an undersea volcano. The origin of whistle is less clear.

## Contents

* 1 Claims
* 2 In a nutshell
* 3 See also
* 4 External links

## Claims[edit]

There has been no explanation as further efforts to research the sound have been unsuccessful, because it has not been heard since 1997.

It is possible to identify animals by the sounds they make. Normally, when sounds are unidentifiable, they are given names like Whistle, Slowdown, Upsweep, and Train. The Bloop, although it sounded like a blue whale, originated 4,800 km away, seemingly ruling out any known marine animal. However, some believe that this sound could have been emitted by a whale and carried that distance by warm water currents.

Some postulate that the sound may come from a huge and as-yet-undiscovered species of octopus or squid, or possibly a new species of gigantic whale or fish even larger than the blue whale. Others dispute this, pointing out that all known cephalopods lack the gas-filled sac necessary to produce this type of sound, and that a cetacean larger than a blue whale would still have to surface for oxygen, making it susceptible to sightings, unless it had some smaller breathing apparatus, not unlike an elephant's trunk.

The Bloop theoretically could have been the product of a machine. The frequency of the Bloop technically is not too low for a machine, but it would be difficult for a machine to produce a sound of such volume.

It is also possible that the sound was made by a large number of creatures emitting a synchronous vibration.

Some people also believe that the sound may belong to a creature called Cthulhu, described by H. P. Lovecraft in his literature. Supposedly, the sunken city of R'lyeh is near the place the Bloop was recorded. Lovecraft said that R'lyeh is located at 47°9′S, 126°43′W in the southern Pacific Ocean.

## In a nutshell[edit]

## See also[edit]

* Cthulhu
* Sky sounds

## External links[edit]

* Damn Interesting's "The Call of the Bloop"
* Bloopwatch
* Episode #178, The Skeptics Guide to the Universe, 16 December 2008
* Episode #177, "The Bloop", Skeptoid, 27 October 2009
* What it actually was