
Fin whale songs could help map the ocean floor
Feb. 11 (UPI) -- The fin whale is the loudest species in the ocean. The mammal's long, loud, low-frequency vocalizations can travel for hundreds of miles. Fin whale songs are so strong, in fact, they generate seismic data that can be used to probe the structure and composition of Earth's seafloor. Advertisement Scientists described the fin whale's potential as a seismic source in a new paper, published Thursday in the journal Science. "The idea to study subsurface signals in whale calls was rather a coincidence," lead study author Václav Kuna told UPI in an email. "I am a seismologist and I was studying earthquakes at the Blanco Fracture Zone west of the Oregon coast. Accidentally, I found fin whale call recordings in our data and -- given my seismological perspective -- I was wondering ...