Search teams racing to find the missing Titanic submarine have detected underwater noises in the area. But finding the source of that sound in the sea will not be easy.
“This is not a simple problem,” said ocean acoustics expert Matt Dziuch of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
The ocean is a “noisy place,” Dziuch said. He pointed out that there are many other possible sources of sound under water, including fish, other animals and, of course, man-made equipment.
The Coast Guard said search teams heard explosions at intervals of 30 minutes.
But it is still “speculative” whether the sounds of the explosions were a true sign of life, said marine scientist Art Trembnis of the University of Delaware. Even this kind of pattern can come from a device making repeated noises inside the water.
Typically, an underwater vehicle has a device called a pinger that can conform to the surface and make it easier to detect, Dziuch said. But it is unclear whether the Titan submersible was using it.
A major challenge is that search teams don’t know exactly what kind of signal they’re looking for, said ocean engineering researcher Lora Van Ueflen of the University of Rhode Island.
“They just keep listening to anything,” he said.
Another challenge for the search team: Sound gets distorted as it travels underwater, because of pressure and temperature changes at different depths, Dziuch said. This can create echo-like effects and make it difficult to locate the source of a particular sound.
“Let’s say, tapping an SOS on the ocean floor might sound like some random bang on the ocean surface,” he said. “It’s like shouting in a valley. You really can’t understand what the person on the other side of the valley is saying.”
Dzieuch said the sounds in the search for Titan were picked up using instruments called sonobuoys, which can be flown out of airplanes to detect noises while avoiding interference with the ship’s sound. Experts said these devices could help triangulate the sub’s location, but searchers would need to deploy several buoys to make it work.
But Van Uffelen said that despite the challenges, “sound is one of our best hopes of finding them.” Sound waves travel much farther underwater than on land, he said.
And in the underwater environment, sound also travels farther than light, he pointed out — so “it would be easier to find it by listening than by looking.”
,
The Associated Press Department of Health and Science is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. AP is solely responsible for all content.
