The Loudest Underwater Sound Ever Recorded

The ocean is wide, vast, and terrifying. But for the last 40 years, researchers around the world have been recording audio from hydrophones to try to understand it better. And we've learned a lot. But a surprising number of sounds have been recorded that defy explanation. Here are some of the most mysterious.

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 - Intro
2:48 - Hydrophones
4:01 - The Bloop
5:17 - Bloop Theories
7:50 - The Bloop Mystery Solved
8:58 - Other Unexplained Sea Sounds
13:54 - Sponsor - Henson Shaving

[joescott]

Thought I would hop into the comments and say thanks to everyone for your patience as I've been slower on the uploads this month. And also (grab a kleenex), this is the last video that you will see with this background. I've got a whole new set that I've built and I've already got a couple videos shot with it that will start rolling out on April 3rd.

So say goodbye to the IKEA shelf and get ready to say hello to... well, another IKEA shelf. 😄

Can't wait for you to see it. Lots of cool stuff on the way. Love you guys.

[dt]

I know you probably won't see this. But i'm currently 17, i've been watching you since i was 12, and you've helped me get through a lot of things. Whenever you don't post anything i actually watch a lot of your old or past videos, and i go to sleep while listening to your videos even though i've seen them a million times already. I just wanted to let you know that there are people out there who absolutely love you, and there are people who's lives have been influenced by you. I hope that one day i can meet you and let you know in person how much you have helped me

[TimeBucks]

Great video, great topic, and fun samples to listen to

[robot_spider]

Growing up on a lake in Northern Michigan, my first thought when I heard the bloop was "Sounds like ice cracking on the lake". When the ice is getting thicker (4"-6" of ice depth), the expansion of the ice causes huge cracks to relieve the stresses that build up. They have a weird organic sound to them. When the ice is thin, <1" you can skip rocks across the surface, and the reverberations sound like sci-fi laser blasts. Literally "pew pew pew".

[DanRyanCarter]

Okay but the 'people living secretly in the attic' thing has happened and it's absolutely terrifying 🙅🏻

[xaviergordillo]

One day I was walking my dog next to a frozen lake... and suddenly a very deep, very loud sound "appears". I wouldn't say that I "hear" it... to be more exact... I would say that I "felt" it... I felt it inside me and everywhere. Of course that left me in shock... I had never heard anything like this in my life... and I have never heard it again. I am not able to express the depth of that sound. It was like being in a movie. I didn't imagine it because my dog listen it too.
I'm not sure what I heard... but I think what happened is that the lake was thawing... and I think what produced the sound was the entire surface of the lake descending a few cm and reverberating like a gigantic drum. Nature is really amazing

[mikebauer]

If you’ve ever been on a large frozen lake (or sea ice) you’ll know that shifting ice makes loud sounds something like huge metal wires twanging.

[Razorfiend]

I love that you used Neil Breen as the stranger in the attic. Finding him up there would be both terrifying and for some reason, unsurprising.

[tnd]

Who ever made the names for the sounds needs a award 🥇

[ThisIsTheWay]

I'm learning so much from this channel and I'm not even done with high school yet. I've learned things that I haven't even heard from school books. Keep on teaching!

[Chrismas]

Thank God you posted, I was stuck watching old Joe Scott videos

[briandoolittle]

The lonely whale reminds me of Bruiser the Elk. On Whidbey Island in the Puget Sound in Washington State, theres a single Elk named Bruiser. Elk are not native to the island, so he's the only one on it. Hes been there about 10 years, after swimming across the Sound to the island. You can occasionally hear him bugling during mating season. People have reported him destroying their clotheslines.

[robsquared]

I'm glad we know what the bloop is. I await the blarp.

[Vaaluin]

Life has been a bit rough for awhile now and having your weekly 15 minutes of chatting helps a ton. Seeing a new vid in my subscriptions today brought me so much comfort.

[jmcurleypoker]

I love this channel. Always learn something new with these videos. Like the sounds scientists make when they’re surprised.

[johnopalko]

Thank you for mentioning Cthulhu. As a lifelong fan of Lovecraft, Cthulhu has always been my tongue-in-cheek explanation for anything weird. Phnglui w'gah nagl fhtagn.

[Dufus_Puncher]

A big ol thing in the ocean farted... Scientists baffled

[nadiayorc]

the thing I rarely see mentioned whenever the recording is talked about but is in my opinion very important to how it could be perceived is that it (and most other of these sea noises) have been sped up and pitched up by a lot (the bloop is 16 times), the original recording lasted about a minute and ranged from around 10hz to 50hz, which most speakers are incapable of reproducing, half of it is outside the human hearing range, and the rest is just barely within it, if it were possible to perfectly reproduce it would likely just sound/feel like a rumble at it's real pitch/tempo (if played at a safe volume)

[Anonymous-pbpg]

i love that after so long you still keep the cephalopod joke running

[dg]

When I was a preteen we had a pond in our garden. Two ducks showed up and had ducklings. We fed them and they were like outdoor pets. They grew into teenage ducks.

One day my dad was taking a bath and my sister and I thought it would be a funny prank to drop them in the bath with my dad, who was laying back in the tub with his eyes closed. Two things hadn't occurred to us - 1) ducks have claws at the tips of their toes, 2) ducks instantly poop when introduced to hot water containing an angry bleeding middle-aged man. While emerging from the water he screamed a certain sound that perfectly conveyed pain, confusion, anger, and surprise.

While it wasn't recorded, I attest that was definitely the loudest sound ever made underwater.