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With a call as loud as a large ship, fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) are among the noisiest creatures in the sea. For some seismologists who monitor earthquakes by recording seafloor vibrations, cetacean calls are a nuisance because the racket muffles their measurements. But for two earthquake researchers, they found whale vocalization reflections could assist in measuring ocean crust structure. Their findings appear today (February 12) in Science.
“It’s a nice example of how we make use of the data the planet provides for us,” Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, a seismologist and volcanologist at Western Washington University who was not involved with the work, tells The New York Times.
Ocean-bottom seismology stations are designed to monitor earthquakes, and often pick up whale songs. Researchers have previously used these incidental recordings to track fin whale movements, but this is the first time whale calls have been used to study ...
