Mr. Dziak believes this is the first time anyone has listened to a single iceberg for all of its life. And he says what his team heard when the iceberg floated into the warmer Scotia Sea was surprising.
“As it begins to enter warmer water, it begins to melt. And it can melt catastrophically. The sound of this iceberg breaking apart was an incredibly loud sound, equivalent to several hundred supertankers in noise levels.”
Mr. Dziak says that is as loud as a small earthquake -- loud enough to be heard all the way up to Earth’s equator.
The oceanographers wondered if this much noise could be a problem for sea animals. Many of them use sound to travel, communicate and find food. Chris Clark is a bioacoustician at Cornell University. He studies the effect of underwater sound on ocean life.
“Whales, and fishes, as a matter of fact, and now even all the invertebrates, like the lobsters and the shrimp and crabs and things like that, are all paying attention to sound. So there’s been this increasing awareness and concern about “Oh noise in the ocean.” Is it good, is it bad, are we indifferent, what’s going on?”
There are more and more human-created sounds in the ocean, from increased shipping traffic, seismic testing and sonar equipment. Researchers are finding that the sounds are affecting sea creatures.
Chris Clark says the noise can make it impossible for animals to hear the things they need to hear.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25