Scientists and deep-sea observers have recorded a mysterious and never-heard-before sound 3600 feet down in the Marina Trench, located in the north of Guam in the western Pacific Ocean. The sound picked up from the cavernous ocean has left the global deep-sea scientist community shocked and dazed. A group of researchers from Hatfield Marine Science Centre from the Oregon State University recorded a mystifying echo, which said to be howling noise while monitoring the communication of deep-sea whale in the Mariana Trench, North of Guam from the Western Pacific Ocean.
However, now the mystery is solved by the scientists from the Oregon State University. The researchers have confirmed the sound to originate from a new type of baleen whale. The resonance, which goes on up to 3.5 seconds, was recorded in 246,000 km2 (94,981 mile2) fraction of the Mariana Trench east of Guam. In a number of occasions ranging from 2014, Autumn to 2015 Spring scientists were able to record the sound in one of world’s largest oceanic areas, the Mariana Trench Marine National protected Monument.
The sound spans in multiple frequencies starting from as lower as 36 hertz to the highest point of 8,000-hertz metallic finale. Scientists, in initial days, were in a state of puzzlement over the five-part sound as they were complex and hence were tricky to make out if they belong to any human or geologic origin.
Previously, Sharon Nieukirk, the lead researcher from Oregon State University, and his colleagues expressed their bewilderment over the sound as they were confused about the origin of it. The scientists also did not say that the sound belonged to any man-made sources like seismic airguns and ships, nor any resemblance to any of geophysical origins like earthquake, ice, rain or wind. Earlier, Nieukirk and colleagues doubted the complex sound to be sourced from any biological creature and believed it to be a new call from baleen whales.
However, now, the scientists have confirmed it to be sourced from the baleen whales, which have never been identified before. Though the sound was quite new to the researchers, but Nieukirk and his associates got the clues from the resonance recorded at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia earlier. The sound earlier the sound was recorded while created by dwarf minke whales, which belong to the family of baleen whale and this confirmed the scientists about its origin in Mariana Trench.