Signal or Noise: 8 Mysterious Unsolved Sounds

These 8 sounds and signals are subjects of constant speculation between conspiracy theorists and scientists alike, but it’s possible that we’ll never know their origin or meaning...



1.The Bloop

Several times during 1997, a sound reverberated through the Pacific Ocean that has been a mystery to science ever since. Dubbed “the Bloop”, the sound rises rapidly in frequency over one minute and was loud enough to be picked up by multiple sensors located up to 5,000km apart. These underwater listening devices were put in place in an area known as the “deep sound channel” during the Cold War to detect and track Soviet submarines, and are now used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to monitor natural phenomena.

The NOAA says there’s no way the sound was man-made, and while it does sort of resemble a sound made by a living creature, there’s no whale in the world that’s large enough to produce a sound of such volume – not even gigantic blue whales.



2. The Hum

All over the world in places like Hawaii, New Mexico and England, every now and then people turn to each other and say, “What’s that humming sound?” It’s described as an irritating, persistent low-frequency sound that resembles the sound of a distant diesel engine idling and can often be felt as vibrations in the body. According to people who have heard it, microphones just can’t seem to accurately capture this noise. It’s loudest indoors, at night and on weekends.

On Big Island in Hawaii, the noise is attributed to volcanic activity, but the same certainly can’t be said in Kent, England or Taos, New Mexico.


3. Bizarre Booms

“Mistpouffers” – it’s a funny name for a series of bizarre booms that have been heard in waterfront communities ranging from Bangladesh to the Netherlands, typically described as a cannon sound or extremely loud thunder despite the absence of clouds in the sky. It’s frequently heard on calm summer days in the Bay of Fundy, Canada and has also been reported in Italy, Ireland, India, Japan, the Philippines, Ireland and in several U.S. States. These booms are no modern invention – the Iroquois explained similar noises to early white settlers as the sound of the Great Spirit continuing to shape the earth.

In 1978, a boom heard on Bell Island off Newfoundland in Canada was powerful enough to damage homes. While some may still believe that it was caused by supernatural phenomena and a recent History Channel special questioned whether secret electromagnetic pulse weapons tests could be the culprit, the cause is still a mystery.



4. The ‘Slow Down’ Sound

Recorded on May 19th, 1997 – the same year as ‘The Bloop’ – this unexplained sound is seven minutes long, slowly descending in frequency toward the end. Known as the ‘Slow Down’ sound, it was loud enough to be heard on three sensors at a range of nearly 2,000km. Nothing like it has been heard ever since.



5. Quacker

During the Cold War, as Soviet Navy ballistic missile submarines patrolled the North Atlantic and Arctic Ocean, they kept hearing the strangest sounds: what they described as “quacking”, the Russian version of our own onomatopeotic “ribbit” of a frog. The sounds were heard whenever the subs passed certain areas of the sea and seemed to be coming from a moving underwater object. However, nothing registered on sonar.

The Soviets believed at the time that they were hearing some kind of secret U.S. Technology and interpreted the sounds as a somewhat frightening threat. Today, scientists believe the sounds may have come from marine life like giant squid, which – lacking rigid internal skeletons – might not show up on sonar.



6. The Spooky Sounds of Saturn’s Rings

They’re eerie and otherworldly, exactly the kinds of bizarre noises you would expect to hear in a sci-fi film – but they’re actually real recordings from another planet. The Cassini spacecraft began detecting these auroral radio emissions from Saturn’s atmosphere in 2002, which have natural rising and falling tones similar to those emitted by Earth.



7. The UVB-76 Buzzer

It seems like a mystery worthy of LOST – a strange repeating radio signal from Russia, punctuated by occasional cryptic messages in Russian. Short, monotonous buzzing tones have been emitted 25 times per minute, 24 hours a day since 1982, and nobody knows exactly why. Perhaps it’s used to transmit encoded messages to spies, or signal the status of some undercover military installation. Or, maybe it’s just related to high-frequency Doppler weather radar.

The voice messages transmitted by this signal, which have occurred only three times in 1997, 2002 and 2006, have all been numerical in nature. One features a Russian male voice saying “”Ya ? UVB-76. 18008. BROMAL: Boris, Roman, Olga, Mikhail, Anna, Larisa. 742, 799, 14.”



8. The ‘Wow’ Signal

Did aliens try to contact us with an interstellar signal detected in 1977? The strong narrowband radio signal picked up by The Big Ear telescope of Ohio State University lasted for a total of 72 seconds and matched the expected signature of an interstellar signal, prompting Dr. Jerry Ehman to circle the signal on a printout and write “Wow!” beside it.

More info on these noises continued at link.

I think we all know about the WOW signal but I have never heard of these other noises or signals and thought what better place to share this than ATS! Mod's please forgive me for the quantity of content in this article that I actually posted. I just wanted to try and get everything, or at least a interesting snippet of each noise into a thread, listing all 8 noises.

As for what I think, I don't know really. Part of me leans toward government tech for most of these as there is tons of tech that is unreleased and unknown to the public, which in turn would ultimately put the eerie and alien spin on all of these noises. Perhaps someday we'll know what they were, but then again, perhaps we won't.

Enjoy the read and feel free to share your speculations, ideas and research on these signals/noises.


[edit on 15-6-2010 by Crossfate]

reply to post by Crossfate


These are overlooked and under-reported phenomena and i hope everyone will investigate this further.

reply to post by Silver Star


I agree completely. This kind of thing should be known on a larger scale at least to those unaware of such phenomena / events.

I have heard booms in my area. I live in the midwest. One time one of the booms shook the ground. IT was not fireworks. I am not sure what it was but I have not heard these booms in over 6 months now. I guarntee I will hear them again.

They are all Vuvuzelas.

Sorry. Watching the World Cup and I am so fed up with the incessant meaningless sound.

I love this post though!

I remember hearing a really loud hum in the late 70s in the middle of the night. We had to go to the Airport and I remember it was there the whole time from our house all the way to the airport. When we returned from our vacation the noise wasn't there anymore. To this day I don't know what it was. Weird.

reply to post by dreamseeker


It kind of reminds me of flashes I've seen that would light up valleys at night. I remember one time I was out 4 wheeling in the middle of nowhere in a valley then all of a sudden there was a extremely bright flash for about 1 or 2 seconds that lit everything up completely.

That has only happened a few times, but not just to me.

Would it be possible for a huge undiscovered organic underwater creature to make the bloop sounds?

There's also the humming sound in NYC. I've heard about it on the news. Did they ever figure that one out?

Originally posted by Crossfate
reply to post by dreamseeker

 

It kind of reminds me of flashes I've seen that would light up valleys at night. I remember one time I was out 4 wheeling in the middle of nowhere in a valley then all of a sudden there was a extremely bright flash for about 1 or 2 seconds that lit everything up completely.

That has only happened a few times, but not just to me.

I saw such a flash here in the valley on the way to a Christmas party out in the country. It turned night to day, then disappeared.

I think I a may have solved " The Hum" I heard this weird low level hum one night ,I had gone to bed but could not sleep because of an annoying low hum. I opened the window but could not hear it outside then I went into every room trying to find where it was emanating from. I went down into the kitchen and that's when I realized it was my bosh fridge freezer. It sometimes makes a certain pitched hum that usually you could tell straight away it was the fridge but occasionally its hum is very hard to place and travels all over the house. I think it might have to do with how much stuff is in the fridge to how it resonates when the compressor is on. I bought the fridge because it was one of the quietest you can get.

This is great! Thank you. The only one of these I've heard about is the WOW signal. I'm all excited to go research these.

Forgive me, my sense of delight goes into overdrive when I bump into something new that piques my interest in this way; so much better than drowing in despair over the gulf...

I don't think sound gets the kudos it should on the grand scale. I've recently been reading up on the difference in recording at 432hz instead of 440hz. Very interesting stuff. Universal harmonics, i don't think we've scratched the surface; look at dolphin and whale comminication, for example. we don't understand the half of it. I was just introduced to the Solfeggio frequencies last year. I listen to them all the time. I really do find after just a few minutes of listening my mood lifts and I'm centred again. The reason why, I do not not know, but it's tangible to me.

I can't wait to listen to Saturn's rings. And with that, off I go to discover more. Two thumbs up, OP, again this is great.

reply to post by Crossfate

OP, about a week ago or so there was a post here on ATs about the UVB78 Buzzer. It has stopped transmitting, I cant remember where it was posted but its here.

reply to post by Crossfate


I have heard the 'Hum' in England both indoors and out occasionally. It seemed very directional - a slight movement of my head and it was gone. The diesel at a distance is a very good description.

I thought it was something to do with hearing blood turbulence when it was very quiet.

reply to post by Crossfate


Great thread, S & F for you!!

We had a boom here in West Midlands a few years back, it made the local papers and news. I remember it well, the windows bowed and the house shook. There was no explaination for it, no sonic boom, no earthquake.

The Bloop is actually Cthulu

Very interesting...

I live in Ontario Canada...and in regards to the bright flashes others have mentioned..when I was around 14-15 i was camping just mins outside of town, when all of a sudden the dark sky light up like it was day time. only it was strange colors. and to this day I still have a hard time telling if it was real or a dream. it was the strangest thing ever.

cheers

It sounds a bit sad, but im compiling a little CD of some of these sounds to play in my car on the way to work. They really give you food for thought and are genuinely mysterious.

On the UVB78 'Buzzer' thread a while back somone provided a link to another website that had recordings of other so-called 'Numbers Stations'. The Conet projects website i believe.

These are a rare treat if the subject interests you!

I'd post the link myself but i havent figured out how to do that yet.