Studying the Ocean Floor with Whale Songs

Whales dominate the ocean, and the fin whale is no outlier to the equation. Fin whales are loud – louder than some ships. New research conducted has now shown that fin whales are louder than we thought: their sound can reach the Earth’s crust.

The sound waves were recorded and passed through rock on the ocean floor. This is important because of how much is unknown about the ocean floor. Fin whales may be the next big key to learning more about the vast oceans and how deep they really are.

Scientists study how deep the ocean is by the timing in which sound waves in the water hit the ground, creating seismic waves. These waves bounce off of the ocean floor and anything in it, alerting scientists to the positions of certain formations and creating a visual in places where they cannot explore directly.

With fin whales on their side, scientists can learn more about the ocean than ever before. Who knows, maybe the ocean is bigger than we thought!