Deep-Sea Mystery: The Bloop

In 1997, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA recorded a loud noise in the South Pacific. The sound had never been heard before by man or machine. It came from an area roughly 1, 750 miles west of Chile. The average depth of water in the area is more than 2 miles. Researchers were able to record the sound from more than 3,000 miles away. There are no islands in the area and no known animals make a sound particularly like that. Fourteen years later, the sound is known as The Bloop and we still do not have a clue what makes it.

Listen to The Bloop here. When you think about the magnitude and mystery of the sound, it can give you the chills. Remember, the sound is actually longer because the released version was sped up to 16 times its speed.

As far as we can tell, the NOAA has made no claim as to what The Bloop is. Of course, they are not the only ones talking about it, so we do have some crazy theories, most which run along the lines of a gigantic cryptid (heretofore undiscovered creature) living in the depths of the Pacific. Yes, the Pacific Ocean is rather vast and there probably is room for such a creature in the Earth's oceans. However, we know that there is not one of anything and being that big makes it hard to hide. So, where are the rest of the gigantic bloop-makers? Yeah, there probably are not any. Is this disappointing? Hardly. There is still a very loud mysterious sound coming out of the ocean. We do not need gigantic creatures to make it awesome.

The best story regarding the gigantic bloop creature is that it is none other than H.P. Lovecraft's very fictional Cthulhu. In that case, R'lyeh must be located somewhere in the South Pacific. Well, L. Ron Hubbard has Scientology and he is, well, L. Ron Hubbard. H.P. Lovecraft is much cooler, so it stands to reason that he should have his own little following of people who think Cthulhu is really sleeping in the ocean and that the NOAA has recorded his snores.

At this point, there is no suitable hypothesis regarding the origin of the bloop. So, just do what pseudo-scientists and science-fiction fans are doing. Make up a cool story to explain the bloop and tell it to everyone on the internet.

Read an important update from the NOAA here.