Nature & Environment

Scientists solve mystery of strange sounds in the Mariana Trench

By T.K. Randall
September 25, 2024 ·  0 comments

Something is calling from the depths... Image Credit: Pixabay / Schaferle The phenomenon had remained an enduring mystery for some time, with scientists first picking up the unexplained sounds over ten years ago in the Mariana Trench which descends almost 11,000 meters down.

The sounds have been described as a low rumble followed by a high-pitched note, suggesting that the culprit may be some sort of large sea creature that is unknown to science.

Most recently, in an effort to get to the bottom of the mystery, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) decided to use an artificial intelligence to analyze over 200,000 hours of audio recordings in order to determine what sort of creature might be responsible.

Now, at last, the answer has been determined - the sounds are those of Bryde's whales.These huge ocean-dwelling mammals can be found around the world and grow up to 50ft in length.

Scientists now believe that their enigmatic calls are used to help the animals locate one another underwater over large distances.

This would explain how they were being picked up from such a long way away.

The discovery demonstrates, once again, how artificial intelligence can help solve long-running mysteries by analyzing large amounts of data far more efficiently than any human could do alone.

Who knows, perhaps one day soon AI will enable us to translate what these whales are actually saying.

Source: BBC News | Comments (0)

Tags: Mariana Trench