The Bloop

The Bloop is the phenomenon without which this site might not exist. As related on the History page, learning about the Bloop and then relating that news to Lovecraft's stories made me feel awfully close to the protagonist of "The Call of Cthulhu".

Since this curious little sound has been so important in our development, it seems only fair to devote a section of the site specifically to it.

Here are the News articles I've collected on it:

• The article from CNN.com
  • This was really the article that started it all for me.
• The article from theage.com.aus
  • Pretty much the same info, but told in a different way.

You should also check out The NOAA Vents Program page about the Bloop. This site yielded not only a .wav file of the noise itself, but the fact that the sound is believed to be coming roughly from 50oS; 100oW. After reading that, I wondered how close that was to the coordinates given in "The Call of Cthulhu". Allow me to quote: "Then, driven ahead by curiosity in their captured yacht under Johansen's command, the men sight a great stone pillar sticking out of the sea, and in S. Latitude 47°9', W. Longitude l23°43', come upon a coastline of mingled mud, ooze, and weedy Cyclopean masonry which can be nothing less than the tangible substance of earth's supreme terror - the nightmare corpse-city of R'lyeh, that was built in measureless aeons behind history by the vast, loathsome shapes that seeped down from the dark stars." Gotta love it!

And now, you can hear Bloop noises right here!

• Bloop.wav: This is the sound as it appears on the NOAA's page. According to them, it was sped up 16 times to produce this file.
• Bloop_nr.wav: This is the same file, but with Noise Reduction applied.
• Bloop_realtime.wav: Now, the original file is slowed down 16 times to attempt to give as accurate a reproduction as possible. WARNING: This file is rather large - 2.5 meg
• Bloop_realtime_nr.wav: Finally, we have the realtime file with noise reduction applied. WARNING: This file is rather large - 2.5 meg

BloopWatch would like to fervently thank BloopWatch Correspondent Colby "Qeveren" Hayward for his help in making these altered files availble to the public.

And just because it's cool, here's the spectrogram of the sound.

We would also like to commend the NOAA for making all of this information available on their website. Without them, this delicious mystery wouldn't be here for us to ponder. I salute them!

You can find the Wikipedia article for the Bloop at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloop.

**UPDATE**: October 31, 2006: Someone's taken our sound file of the slowed down Bloop and made a reaaaally creepy short film comparing the Bloop and Cthulhu! Woo! Happiness! Go check it out. Thanks very much to Dagon's Daughter for pointing this out to me. :)

**UPDATE**: March 16, 2009: The NOAA put out spectrographs of a number of known and unknown underwater sounds, including the Bloop. Our Bloop doesn't seem to match anything we know of already, truly. Thanks to BloopWatch Correspondent James Wallis for sending the link.

**UPDATE**: May 11, 2010: We received an email from Louise Cole saying, "If you have read Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun, you might also find a source for this sound in the realm of Abaia." I haven't read this book, so I'm not sure what this means. If anyone has, please let me know.

The second odd message I've got regarding the Bloop, well...to say that I'm not convinced of its authenticity is putting it mildly (for one thing, I think Boeing and Raytheon would probably demand better spelling from their employees). But it's an intriguing read, and I'm including it below, unedited.

ATTN: Bloop Watch

My name is Robert Blake, I use to work for Boeing PLant II in the Noise Labs of Seattle, WA. I am not a expert by any stretch of the imagination. However I am skilled with software applications cause of my background in IT computing products. I use to work for Boeing back in 2008, Aero Noise Propulsion LABS. I was the lead systems administrator for all computing labs, DAS Data Acquisitions Systems.

Here is my concern ! I took all audio files from your website and ran them through my own front end noise reduction software at home. I found some very interesting clacks, popping, clapping and chirps. Also some sounds of what seems like strange voices.

Now i did not find this in the beginning but after several hours of playing back and fourth for days.

I called my fiance up in Arhus, Denmark over skype using VOIP Voice Over Internet Protocol during the playbacks of all audio files of bloop i was able to pick up those clacks and chirps but only when i used VOIP online. This some how allows the audio density and latency to pinpoint finer distortions upon playback.

I am a musician and also a recording artist, this is by far the most unidentifiable sounds i have ever heard even during recording sessions or speaker playback off of my flat sparkers KRK systems 5.

I am going to try some other mixtures of speakers and see if i can produce the same clacks and chirps that i originally discovered. Its my belief this is not of a, marine life, b, mass plate-tonics, c, or even NAVY ?

I am ex Air-force of the 389th Fighter SQD MT Home AFB, i was deployed to the middle east several times through out 1994 and 1998. I have seen and done many things i cannot talk about till this day but this encounter with the audio file, " bloop", makes me think more than once or twice.

Like i said I have seen many things but this is making me crazy cause of this recent discovers; i.e. example,

" claps, clicks even weird chirps " some sounds even have definition of letters not even in our vocabulary !!! yeah no BS either !!!! This is not a joke i take my work very seriously. I hope you take time to read this information and use it wisely.

I have been in contact with Raytheon to look for work and one of my most recent applications was for work in the southern Arctics Pole by via US Research Vessel for National Scientific Ocean Studies.

Anyways i may not get the position and thats ok with me but I figure someday, somehow, someone like me is going to stumble on these sounds that most don't even look for ?

Anyways good luck and hope you use this email for R&D.;

Retired SRA Robert W Blake

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