![Cyclone Guambe spun up in an area off southern Africa where no such tropical development had been observed before. Image: Meteosat-8](/images/resized/images/news/2016/309_mar05/14_100_100.jpg)
Sonic Explorers
The songs of fin whales are the loudest in the sea and may soon be used to help map the world’s ocean floor. A seismologist at Oregon State University says he and colleagues have found the sound waves generated by the whale species are strong enough to penetrate several feet into the ocean floor, where they reverberate off sediment and layers of rock. “After each whale call, if you look closely at the seismometer data, there is a response from the Earth,” said researcher John Nabelek. Blasts from high-energy air guns are now the main tools used to explore the ocean floor, but they are expensive, require permits and...