Feb 19, 2025 11:11 PM
https://www.sciencefocus.com/planet-eart...nt-explain
EXCERPTS: 3. Who – or what – made the Yonaguni Monument?
Off the coast of Yonaguni, the southernmost of Japan’s Ryukyu Islands, lies a weird rock formation. It was discovered by scuba diver Kihachiro Aratake in 1986, while he was trying to seek out some spots to watch hammerhead sharks.
The unusual monument features perpendicular stacked sandstone blocks, parallel joints, a spiralling ‘staircase’ and strange etchings, leading some people to believe it could be the sunken remains of a civilisation from long ago. Yet no-one knows who made it – if anyone.
One of the people who think it was human-made is Prof Masaaki Kimura, of Ryukyu University in Japan, who led an expedition to ‘Japan’s Atlantis’ shortly after Aratake discovered it. In 2004, Kimura wrote that “sonic sounding, underwater robot and scuba diving surveys reveal the existence of artificial topographies constructed about 10,000 years ago beneath the sea off the Ryukyu Islands in Japan.
Features were found that look like an ancient city, including stepped pyramids, roads and water canals off the southern coast of Yonaguni Island.”
Other scientists, however, are not convinced. Prof Robert Schoch, a natural scientist at Boston University in the US, made dozens of dives on the site and concluded that the structure is natural.
He pointed to the fact that the rocks in the region break cleanly along vertical and horizontal planes, and similar formations can be seen on the land. He explained away the rock etchings as natural scratches on the sandstone’s surface.
He did concede, however, that there is evidence of ancient civilisations once living on the nearby island.
4. Where are weird ocean noises coming from?
The ocean is a surprisingly noisy place, with human activity, animal calls, volcanic rumbles and seismic shifts all contributing to the underwater soundscape. But some strange underwater noises have left scientists scratching their heads.
One sound, named ‘the Upsweep’, was first recorded in 1991 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and continues to be detected today. It essentially sounds, as its name implies, like a wail steadily rising in pitch.
Each upsweep only lasts a few seconds and appears to radiate from a point between New Zealand and South America. Curiously, activity seems to peak in spring and autumn, but as of yet, scientists have not resolved what’s causing it.
Yet another mystery sound is ‘the Ping’. Emanating from the Fury and Hecla Strait in the Canadian Arctic, the noise was reported in 2016, when hunters in the remote region claimed it was scaring animals away. The Canadian military sent an aircraft to investigate the sound’s origin, to no avail.
At the time, various theories were circulated, with both mining companies and wildlife activists being accused of making the sounds – all of whom denied involvement. As of yet, we still don’t know where it’s coming from.
But perhaps the most famous noise of all is ‘the Bloop’. One of the loudest underwater sounds ever recorded, the thunderous rumbling was picked up in 1997 via hydrophones placed thousands of kilometres apart across the Pacific.
Over the years, theories started to proliferate as to its origins. Was it from some secret military exercise? Or perhaps it was simply the metallic grindings of boat machinery?
Some were convinced it was the cry of the monster from The Call Of Cthulhu, the 1928 short story by HP Lovecraft. More fuel was thrown on this theory when it was reported that the Bloop’s source was located just 1,500km (930 miles) from where Cthulhu first emerged in the tale.
In 2005, after almost a decade of acoustic surveys and data analysis, scientists finally cracked it – the Bloop was not the wail of a many-tentacled sea creature, but was (slightly disappointingly) the sound of an iceberg breaking away from a glacier.
Of course, climate change means it’s likely that ‘Bloops’ may become more commonplace as the planet’s ice starts to melt at a faster rate. (MORE - the other five)
EXCERPTS: 3. Who – or what – made the Yonaguni Monument?
Off the coast of Yonaguni, the southernmost of Japan’s Ryukyu Islands, lies a weird rock formation. It was discovered by scuba diver Kihachiro Aratake in 1986, while he was trying to seek out some spots to watch hammerhead sharks.
The unusual monument features perpendicular stacked sandstone blocks, parallel joints, a spiralling ‘staircase’ and strange etchings, leading some people to believe it could be the sunken remains of a civilisation from long ago. Yet no-one knows who made it – if anyone.
One of the people who think it was human-made is Prof Masaaki Kimura, of Ryukyu University in Japan, who led an expedition to ‘Japan’s Atlantis’ shortly after Aratake discovered it. In 2004, Kimura wrote that “sonic sounding, underwater robot and scuba diving surveys reveal the existence of artificial topographies constructed about 10,000 years ago beneath the sea off the Ryukyu Islands in Japan.
Features were found that look like an ancient city, including stepped pyramids, roads and water canals off the southern coast of Yonaguni Island.”
Other scientists, however, are not convinced. Prof Robert Schoch, a natural scientist at Boston University in the US, made dozens of dives on the site and concluded that the structure is natural.
He pointed to the fact that the rocks in the region break cleanly along vertical and horizontal planes, and similar formations can be seen on the land. He explained away the rock etchings as natural scratches on the sandstone’s surface.
He did concede, however, that there is evidence of ancient civilisations once living on the nearby island.
4. Where are weird ocean noises coming from?
The ocean is a surprisingly noisy place, with human activity, animal calls, volcanic rumbles and seismic shifts all contributing to the underwater soundscape. But some strange underwater noises have left scientists scratching their heads.
One sound, named ‘the Upsweep’, was first recorded in 1991 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and continues to be detected today. It essentially sounds, as its name implies, like a wail steadily rising in pitch.
Each upsweep only lasts a few seconds and appears to radiate from a point between New Zealand and South America. Curiously, activity seems to peak in spring and autumn, but as of yet, scientists have not resolved what’s causing it.
Yet another mystery sound is ‘the Ping’. Emanating from the Fury and Hecla Strait in the Canadian Arctic, the noise was reported in 2016, when hunters in the remote region claimed it was scaring animals away. The Canadian military sent an aircraft to investigate the sound’s origin, to no avail.
At the time, various theories were circulated, with both mining companies and wildlife activists being accused of making the sounds – all of whom denied involvement. As of yet, we still don’t know where it’s coming from.
But perhaps the most famous noise of all is ‘the Bloop’. One of the loudest underwater sounds ever recorded, the thunderous rumbling was picked up in 1997 via hydrophones placed thousands of kilometres apart across the Pacific.
Over the years, theories started to proliferate as to its origins. Was it from some secret military exercise? Or perhaps it was simply the metallic grindings of boat machinery?
Some were convinced it was the cry of the monster from The Call Of Cthulhu, the 1928 short story by HP Lovecraft. More fuel was thrown on this theory when it was reported that the Bloop’s source was located just 1,500km (930 miles) from where Cthulhu first emerged in the tale.
In 2005, after almost a decade of acoustic surveys and data analysis, scientists finally cracked it – the Bloop was not the wail of a many-tentacled sea creature, but was (slightly disappointingly) the sound of an iceberg breaking away from a glacier.
Of course, climate change means it’s likely that ‘Bloops’ may become more commonplace as the planet’s ice starts to melt at a faster rate. (MORE - the other five)
