The Loudest Underwater Sound Ever Recorded

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.

You know what’s even scarier than the strange noises? The SILENCE!!!!!

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

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

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,

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

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

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

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.

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.

When looking for a solution to mysterious underwater sounds, the best method is to use Occam's Razor; which in this case leads to the answer that it's an interdimensional city phasing back into our spacetime and the pressure of the displaced water causes the noise. 😛

The sounds that planets make are kind of terrifying. Maybe you can do a vid on that :)

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

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

That bloop was the sound of a wormhole opening and closing real quick. An alien space craft was aiming for the upper atmosphere, but they fudged the coordinates and ended up warping in to the ocean.

You can’t deny it’s bloopiness ❤️

The sounds on your video scared my dogs enough so I had to pause and take them outside to brush off the uneasiness. I thought this is scary stuff for humans only, but apparently we're not alone in this. Thank for the video, great work!

A glacier calving is still the most awesome sound I have ever experienced. The sound comes from everywhere.

Sounds like an air bubble escaping the sea floor.

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

Hello Joe! I am really curious about the sounds of the ocean during the pandemic when all the shipping traffic was quiet. I tried to attempt to research this but hit a bunch of dead ends.

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!

Very curious and interesting, as per usual!
I have a question though: a lot of the sounds you mention were first recorded in 1997. Was that the year the array was built across the sea floor or was that just a particularly terrifying period for marine science?
Keep up the good work!

This video is fascinating; I thought that it was due to ice but the distance the sound traveled is remarkable!

1997 seems like a good year for several hydrophonic mysteries. I wonder why that year seems like an outlier with it's number of unidentified recordings. Perhaps the bloop brought more attention to that year's recordings.

I found your channel a few weeks ago and I love it! Your ability to explain things in such an easy to understand and concise manner is amazing!

hi joe! thank you for always accompanying me through my sleepless nights :)

Anyone else really enjoying the background track Joe has during these vids? Just a really good vibing tune 😎

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.

I just wanted to let you know joe that your videos always lighten up my day💪🏼

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.

Fun fact! Julia has a chorus effect guitar pedal named after it, made by Walrus Audio! I have one and it very much captures the spirit of the Julia sound. It just a LITTLE different than other chorus effects

After listening to singing ice, I'm convinced this must have been one MASSIVE ice sheet cracking.

This is a very entertaining and thoughtful video. Thank you! One helpful grammar tip: Use "farther" for distance, as in "Sound waves travel farther in water than they do in air." Use "further" for just about everything else. As in: "These night courses will further my criminology education." Or "The further I get into this story, the more confused I become." All good wishes.

Once again, great video, great topic, and fun samples to listen to. :D

I know I've said this before, but some things bear repetition! Joe, you make me laugh out loud more often than just about anyone other than Dave Chappelle. I come for the knowledge, I stay for your humourous takes and delivery on this crazy world/universe. Genuine appreciation for your thoughtful insights delivered so lightly. THANK YOU! Right next to love, the world needs more laughter!

People estimated that the bloop beast was supposed to be more than 250m big. Now imagine: a population of those, somehow not leaving any sign of their presence apart from that one sound that one time. And let's not start thinking about what does that even eat and all.
Also, Scott, THANK YOU. The first time I heard the "loneliest whale story" I was almost 30, and CRIED MY EYES OUT FOR HALF AN HOUR and had my mood destroyed for days. Like, I feel like crying right now just remembering it.
So, having now an explanation with a plausible happy ending for that whale feels like a huge gift.
Funny enough, I was very sympathetic with its loneliness, but now my austic lonely butt are even more empathetic with that little "odd" dude than before, and I'm just glad that one of us managed to likely find their way to someone who accepts them even if they are a bit "different".
So, thank you scott for reporting it and heal this "wound" I felt for years the little guy 😂

Great video Joe, thank you so much!
Though I'll have to add, the 'seamonster' that all sprung in to our collective young brains around the internet many years ago, was the original speed of the recording. The "Bloop" (if I recall correctly) is named after the sound you played back to us. However, that's sped up by 16 times. The original audio recording, that as a result is much slower and in a lower pitch - was TERRIFYING and sparked the imagination.
Though, that could've just as easily been someone that slowed down the original for a much spookier effect, I admit. The truth is out there!

Another quality video! Love your work :)

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.

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

So cool. I have heard similar bloops on deep big ice. Fun to hear all this . Thanks for sharing

Should be able to triangulate it based on timestamps when it was recorded at each hydrophone. As long as you know the time and location of each hydrophone. Without knowing the exact geography and speed of sound in the various media, you might only locate it to a several kilometer area, but it’s possible.

I don't mind conspiracies because they are fun sometimes, but only for mysterious stuff like this. I do love knowing the actual reason for a mystery happening though. Who knew ice could be so noisy?

Ok the children's book being written by Richard Moby and William Free is way more effort than was needed and I'm totally here for it.

I’m loving the new writing method, can see how it’s changed. Massive props I love these new videos

Thank you joe,I’ve greatly enjoyed your videos

I think the cephalopod script has been heralded like 6 times since that video came out and it never ceases to be funny

Legend goes that the sound is still going around the ocean to this day, being reverberated and echoed back and forth.

"The Whistle" was me. I swam for the first time in the summer of 1997 which was a very cold summer. The water was cold and I howled while swimming towards shore as fast as I could. The low pitch is a result of the Doppler effect as I was moving lightning fast out of the water and away from any hydrophones. I'm not proud of it, but it's time I put an end to this 'myth'.

Anybody else notice how most of these sounds happened in the 90’s, right before human technology REALLY took off, and we haven’t really heard much like it since then?

Hey Joe, I was wondering what an asteroid impact on the ocean would have sounded like to the hydrophones. Seems like a missed opportunity here but damned if I know whether or not we even have any recorded.

Hey Joe. Great video! Since you are at the ocean topics - you should make a video on the baltic sea anomaly!

As someone with severe thalassophobia, I can assure you those sounds are indeed either Cthulhu or giant cannibal spider sharks

Cool story about the thumbnail, I actually met the artist that drew that picture when I was 12-13. We were in Anaheim CA for a goth culture event. I still have his business card in one of my old wallets, it has the same picture on it. Had I known he was a famous online artist I would’ve asked for an autograph 😂

2:30 that story is worth telling.
The team put out buoys with a motion activated camera and bait, one of the buoys disappeared. It was pulled under water, for 2 hours. Before it resurfaced the only evidence is a single photo and a tentacle.

A large number of permanent hydrophone arrays were installed by various nations during the cold war. There's likely always someone listening to loud noises.

Kinda makes sense if you think about the sound a golf ball makes when it bounces on a frozen lake. It's like a super pitched down version of that. So cool.

I’m not the least little bit ashamed at how excited I was to see a new vid! Love me my Joe.

Thanks for the awesome content and great videos!!!

My ravourite documentaries have always been about the ocean.its amazing. I can't even swim but look at the beauty of the unknown .I love this channel and I only found it today 20 March 2023 and I am getting addicted to it. ❤

I have something super similar to a Hensen razer. I loved the thing but one of the replacement blades was a little too big for the razer and I dropped it in just the wrong way to literally flay open a part of my finger. Still can't look at it without feeling sick unfortunatly, but it was a fantastic razer before that.

Love this video and the names of the sounds are FANTASTIC. I also love when two things I love cross paths (there is a BTS song called 52 Whalien - which is where I first learned about the 52 hertz whale) and seeing it here made it even cooler. Love your channel, as always, and yes... the oceans are terrifying.

You've given me my second favourite word for the week: cryoseism (first being 'polychronicon'). Calling all narrative writers... ✍Thanks also for creating a beautiful new channel for us to enjoy--moving onto your Victorian cures video now.

it's quite scary that we have like 90% of living stuff undiscovered

The RadioLab episode "Red Herring" (FEB 19, 2021) has a really interesting underwater sound story involving an odd sound heard off the coast of Sweden during the cold war. It's both very educational and pretty funny. Worth giving it a listen if you get a chance.

Hey Joe, I was just wondering has google sent anything through the Wormhole they created yet? What is on the other side? Has Google made any attempts to map whats on the other side yet?

I certainly can't deny its bloopiness... and yeah, imagination is tons of fun! :)
Henson razors are proper tools. Can't say that for cartridge blades in my experience.

Thanks for an another interesting video Joe! So , one whale out there is a soprano. Nice to know. Also, if we ever go to Europa with a lander that will dig deeper than 10 cm , I hope they include a hydrophone.

Your segways from the program to the advertising is always a treat. I usually laugh my ass off! You're a hoot, Joe!

I love ocean videos, some of my favorite behind weird historic videos

Ocean sounds are beyond terrifying 😳

never change. I always love your side comments, noises, and made up words.

The educational children's show Octonauts did a "Lonely Whale" episode where they encountered a whale with an unusual call. It turns out to just be genetics, the Octonauts fashioned a device that changes the whale's call to the frequency his friends understand, and he's no longer a lonely, odd whale. Well, besides the whole voice modulator thing.

The mystery of Bloop was resolved a few years ago, he even started making appearances on certain UAclips channel. We haven't seen him in a while though, he is believed to have been eaten by a shark.

Is it just me or have all these sounds been used in movies? They have a nostalgic vibe… like I know I’ve heard them but idk from where.

Where I live in Canada, we usually get at the very least one or two good ice quakes every winter, and they always friggin happen right in the middle of the night when it’s typically at it’s coldest, at if you’re a night owl like me it’s not the worst thing, but you’ll definitely get scared, and your wife, girlfriend or pets will probably jump at least 6ft into the air, but if it happens when you’re asleep - you’re going to fly the hell awake. One time I literally got so scared that it woke me up and I just farted louder than ever, and my girlfriend at the time couldn’t stop laughing for like 3 weeks after lol.

It’s interesting that I have seen bird spectrograms with patterns very similar to some of these underwater sounds.

When I learned submarine sonar could basically liquify your brain, I literally couldn't believe it, but it makes sense as I've learned more. Shits CRAZY.

love that at 6:40 joe used a mtg card (specifically scourge of fleets) to illustrate a giant underwater sea creature,

I can vouch for Henson blades, they are good for sensitive skin. It’s not nearly as close of a shave as my Merker, but I never cut myself. If I’m in a hurry and I’m trying to shave outside of my schedule of shaving safely, this is my go to razor.

Has Jason re-used that joke again? Will he do it everytime the script mentions Cephalopods? Will Joe Ron Burgundy it everytime? Stay tuned this time next week to find out in more exciting episodes!

So, what I`m learning from this video is that alot of wierd unexplained sh*t went down in the pacific, in '97...
Also, as someone who`s beaten the game subnautica twice, as well as it`s sequel, these noises are getting to me in ways I could never have anticipated

Joe is always interesting.

The “lonely whale” sounds like a calf that got depressed from its mother and was taken in by a pod of blue whales.
It learned to communicate with its adoptive family and now has a unique vocalization pattern.
To me, that it keeps vocalizing implies it is being heard. There could be a range of explanation for its patterns, and we need way more observation to understand why it may be doing something different.
Maybe it is a hybrid and we can’t really tell because of morphological differences among individual species.
Maybe it has a deformity of some kind.
Or maybe the idea I mentioned above, that a whale of one species, through choice or necessity, developed a way of communicating with closely related species.
Or some other thing.
Nothing has ever implied, to me at least, that it is this lonely whale who yells into an abyss but gets no response.

I've heard the sound of the frozen ground moving underground. It is a muffled sound but distinct.

I caught a giant squid in the valley of 'The Hump' south of Marathon, Florida, in November of 1994. I was fishing at a depth of around 1,200', and was using an entire medium-sized bonito as bait. It pulled our 50's fisherman backwards at around 10 knots - with ease. It also had a horrible look in its eye - like, it was furious! We cut the line, but every time the captain grabbed the line the squid would start fighting again (we wanted to cut the line as close to the animal as possible, so it wouldn't have 30' of line hanging from it's beak). To me the beastie seemed to be very, very intelligent, and a fighter. The captain told me that when he was a commercial swordfish fisherman that at night the swordfish would come to the surface from the depths below in that area, and they'd hunt the giant squid - but he said you'd also see the giant squid grab the swordfish with their huge arms (each sucker is ringed by sharp teeth!), and pull them under!

Great video, but the Ad for Henson shaving made me try out the razor and it’s INSANELY AMAZING. So nicely made and such a great deal.

i love how the theory about the giant creature is so detailed in the description of how it looks when NO ONE HAS SEEN IT (because it doesn't exist)

Good to see you back, Joe. Mondays have been a bit odd recently...

Dont be let down, its the discoveries we never see coming when we are looking for something else... that amazes me.

I named my media company after 52 Blue. The concept of being able to understand everything being said to you without being understood is crazy to me.

1997 was a wild year for hydrophone operators 😂

I was gonna ask why they were only considering bio sources, and not geo causes, i was thinking of some tectonic plates and lava coming out or smtg, glad to hear they figured it out logically

I'm really happy you mentioned the cthulu angle it's one of my favorite weird coincidences.😂

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

“Your symphonies are so beautiful, so melodious, so subtle, that we all felt ashamed comparing our meagre, watery tunes to yours. You do know the entire world has heard your song, don’t you? Not just the whales, but the humans, too.”

okay, those hydrophone recordings might just be mountains of ice crashing against each other, but good lord do they sound horrifying
like straight up nightmare fuel

It seems interesting that so many of the weird sounds were from 1997. Anyone know of an explanation for so many of the occurrences he mentioned being from 1997??

Hi Joe!! 👋 Just wondering if you were able to make the documentary about the Baker Hotel. Would love to hear about it. Love your videos!! Thank you!!