Bloop blooped

January 5, 2024 9:24 AM

Source of mysterious underwater BLOOP found. The loudest sound ever recorded underwater, a mystery until now. Previously.
posted by Goofyy (32 comments total)

This is what I had heard it was, but the reason is extra depressing. I’d prefer something eldritch.
posted by Countess Elena at 9:29 AM on January 5 [13 favorites]

From the article: "The Bloop was the sound of an icequake – an iceberg cracking and breaking away from an Antarctic glacier!"
posted by capricorn at 9:30 AM on January 5 [6 favorites]

The BLOOP(s)! But yeah, bad news.
I did not know about these other ones:

While there are still some underwater recordings that remain a mystery, many odd sounds, including the Julia, the Slow Down, and the Train, have recently been explained by the movement of ice in the southern seas.

Had to look up the Julia:
Julia is a sound recorded on March 1, 1999, by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA said the source of the sound was most likely a large iceberg that had run aground off Antarctica. It was loud enough to be heard over the entire Equatorial Pacific Ocean autonomous hydrophone array... From Wikipedia List of unexplained sounds.
More about "Julia" (I was trying to find the reason it was named Julia. No luck.)
posted by Glinn at 9:34 AM on January 5 [6 favorites]

And we all figured it was Cthulhu sneezing.
posted by Goofyy at 9:35 AM on January 5 [4 favorites]

I'll continue to believe it was the sound of some abyssal titan, older than recorded time, whose stirring presages the imminent fall of human civilization.

In times like these, we all need to hold on to a little optimism.
posted by Faint of Butt at 9:44 AM on January 5 [39 favorites]

I'll continue to believe it was the sound of some abyssal titan, older than recorded time, whose stirring presages the imminent fall of human civilization.

If it’s any consolation, this impression isn’t entirely wrong.
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:51 AM on January 5 [42 favorites]

If it must be an eldritch horror, why not ice avalanche caused by an eldritch horror breaking free from its icy prison?
posted by surlyben at 9:51 AM on January 5 [2 favorites]

I had assumed the Bloop was made by a Blooper
posted by aubilenon at 9:53 AM on January 5 [1 favorite]

(I was trying to find the reason it was named Julia. No luck.)

I poked around a little, too, and also had no luck, but listening to the sound file, it kind of sounds like Julia Child's voice to me? I very much doubt that's the inspiration, since I was listening to a sped-up version and it seems like that's the kind of odd tidbit that would find its way into more stories about the sound. But I'm running with a whole "undersea elder god sounds like Julia Child" story in my head now anyway.
posted by EvaDestruction at 9:54 AM on January 5 [4 favorites]

no fart joke yet?

this is not that fart joke, just a place holder, and I eagerly await the fart joke
posted by elkevelvet at 9:58 AM on January 5 [1 favorite]

If it must be an eldritch horror, why not ice avalanche caused by an eldritch horror breaking free from its icy prison?

kind of a win-win
posted by philip-random at 10:02 AM on January 5 [2 favorites]

But I'm running with a whole "undersea elder god sounds like Julia Child" story in my head now anyway.

I'm struggling with the notion of an elder god that uses Received Pronunciation.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:14 AM on January 5 [5 favorites]

I'm struggling with the idea of a gigantic eldritch Julia Child farting.
posted by chavenet at 10:16 AM on January 5 [4 favorites]

Meanwhile, elkevelvet, I think the writer of this article is on your, er, wavelength...

To travel that far, the unidentified noise must have been really loud – far too loud to emanate from a single underwater animal.
posted by chavenet at 10:20 AM on January 5 [6 favorites]

blessings chavenet, you're doing the lord's work
posted by elkevelvet at 10:20 AM on January 5 [6 favorites]

capricorn: “ "The Bloop was the sound of an icequake – an iceberg cracking and breaking away from an Antarctic glacier!"”

I am again reminded of the words of philosopher William Hudson who said, "Well that's great. That's just fuckin' great, man."
posted by ob1quixote at 10:53 AM on January 5 [5 favorites]

But I'm running with a whole "undersea elder god sounds like Julia Child" story in my head now anyway.

I'm struggling with the notion of an elder god that uses Received Pronunciation.

Do not question the Old Ones' many forms, mortal.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 11:04 AM on January 5 [2 favorites]

Do not question the Old Ones' many forms, mortal.

If we think of J. Edgar Hoover Julia Child, Julia Child will appear and destroy us, okay? So, empty your heads. Empty your heads. Don't think of anything. We've only got one shot at this.
posted by Ickster at 11:15 AM on January 5 [7 favorites]

Empty your heads.

'Way ahead of you, pal...
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:46 AM on January 5 [3 favorites]

"I was trying to find the reason it was named Julia. No luck."

I believe that's because researchers found if you play it backwards it is the song "Julia" by The Beatles, and the outro says "I buried Paul."
posted by symbioid at 11:47 AM on January 5 [3 favorites]

As ice loss in Antarctica accelerates beyond what scientists ever expected, over half the shelves holding up the Southern Hemisphere's ice sheet are nearing collapse.


This is the way the world ends.
Not with a bang but a bloop.
posted by doctornemo at 12:16 PM on January 5 [9 favorites]

farts are stupid
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 12:21 PM on January 5 [2 favorites]

Is this new information? I had thought they'd nailed down the cause years ago.

Still hoping for R'lyeh-related causes, though.
posted by rmd1023 at 1:00 PM on January 5 [1 favorite]

I eagerly await the fart joke>

Aunt Fartica

so sorry
posted by Droll Lord at 2:21 PM on January 5 [8 favorites]

Funny side note: My dog is named Blue (he's a Blue Dane). We call walking him, Blooping the Blue.
posted by Goofyy at 6:47 PM on January 5 [2 favorites]

Farts are simple and farts are straight
Farts are lazy and farts are late
Farts all come with points of view
Farts don't do what I want them to
posted by kirkaracha at 7:34 PM on January 5 [4 favorites]

And we all figured it was Cthulhu sneezing.

"... the location pinpointed as the source of the Bloop was located a mere 1,760km from the location of the sunken city of R'yleh, where (according to HP Lovecraft) the mythical beast Cthulhu is imprisoned."
posted by kirkaracha at 7:37 PM on January 5 [1 favorite]

Farts don't do what I want them to

Farts just twist the nose around
Farts are colons turned inside out
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:46 PM on January 5 [2 favorites]

This morning our sweet little female cat Rusty was on the bed, trying to coax us to get up and feed her. Her butt was in mr kinnakeet’s face when I ripped a fart, a big morning one. Mr k awoke abruptly and cried out “whoa! Rusty just farted right in my face!”

Picturing that much noise coming from our dainty little kitty made me laugh so hard I literally fell out of bed. Hours later I fessed up, but not before laughing until I cried more than once. It was a Bloop moment.
posted by kinnakeet at 5:25 AM on January 6 [4 favorites]

BLOOP there it is.
posted by kirkaracha at 11:58 AM on January 6 [1 favorite]

And we all figured it was Cthulhu sneezing.

I propose Cthuluju as a portmanteau word for alien gods of especially cyclopean proportion.
posted by y2karl at 5:06 PM on January 7

I initially misread the first sentence in the post as "Source of mysterious underpants BLOOP found."
posted by syzygy at 4:06 PM on January 10