Sign up for our daily briefing
Make your busy days simpler with Axios AM/PM. Catch up on what's new and why it matters in just 5 minutes.
Stay on top of the latest market trends
Subscribe to Axios Markets for the latest market trends and economic insights. Sign up for free.
Sports news worthy of your time
Binge on the stats and stories that drive the sports world with Axios Sports. Sign up for free.
Tech news worthy of your time
Get our smart take on technology from the Valley and D.C. with Axios Login. Sign up for free.
Get the inside stories
Get an insider's guide to the new White House with Axios Sneak Peek. Sign up for free.
Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday
Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday
Want a daily digest of the top Denver news?
Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Denver
Want a daily digest of the top Des Moines news?
Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Des Moines
Want a daily digest of the top Twin Cities news?
Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Twin Cities
Want a daily digest of the top Tampa Bay news?
Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Tampa Bay
Want a daily digest of the top Charlotte news?
Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Charlotte
Fin whale in the Gulf of Maine, North Atlantic Ocean. Photo: Francois Gohier/VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
The echoes of fin whale songs can penetrate sediment and volcanic rock on the ocean floor, according to new research.
Why it matters: Fin whale songs could be used to map the Earth's crust when conventional — and in some cases, controversial — methods like firing seismic air guns from ships may not be available.
- “It’s never going to replace air guns,” study co-author Václav Kuna of the Institute of Geophysics in Prague told the NYT.
- “But it is a complement. And it’s free.”
Fin whales are loud — their low-frequency calls can generate more than 185 decibels underwater, on par with a large ship.
- Researchers typically use the endangered whales' low-frequency vocalizations to study the distribution of the species (Balaenoptera physalus) in the oceans.
What they did: Kuna and John Nábelek of Oregon State University analyzed six whale songs, each with 212–593 calls that were 30–40 seconds apart.
- The calls were picked up by a network of seismometers on the ocean floor that monitor for earthquakes off the coast of Oregon. (The researchers suggest machine learning algorithms could be used to locate and analyze calls.)
- Part of the energy in the whales' calls is "transmitted in the ground as a seismic wave. The seismic wave travels through the oceanic crust, where it is reflected and refracted by layers within the crust," the researchers write today in the journal Science.
- They were able to use those signals to map the thickness of sediment and rock on the ocean floor.
Yes, but: It has its limits — for example, the method worked best in relatively flat regions and the resolution of seismic images constructed from the whales' low-frequency signals was lower than the conventional air gun method.
- The broader-frequency calls of sperm whales may produce higher-resolution imaging, the researchers suggest.
The big picture: "Our study demonstrates that animal vocalizations are useful not only for studying the animals themselves but also for investigating the environment that they inhabit," the researchers write.