From 900 miles away, the US government recorded audio of the Titan sub implosion
The waveform of the recording.
From SOSUS to wind farms
Back in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s, this kind of sonic technology was deeply important to the military, which used the Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) to track things like Soviet submarine movements. (Think of Hunt for Red October spy games here.) Using underwater beamforming and triangulation, the system could identify submarines many hundreds or even thousands of miles away. The SOSUS mission was declassified in 1991.
Today, high-tech sonic buoys, gliders, tags, and towed arrays are also used widely in non-military research. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in particular, runs a major system of oceanic sound acquisition devices that do everything from tracking animal migration patterns to identifying right whale calving season to monitoring offshore wind turbines and their effects on marine life.
But NOAA also uses its network of devices to monitor non-animal noise—including earthquakes, boats, and oil-drilling seismic surveys.
What’s left of the Titan, scattered across the ocean floor.
In June 2023, these devices picked up an audible anomaly located at the general time and place of the Titan implosion. The recording was turned over to the investigation board and has now been cleared for public release.
The Titan is still the object of both investigations and lawsuits; critics have long argued that the submersible was not completely safe due to its building technique (carbon fiber versus the traditional titanium) and its wireless and touchscreen-based control systems (including a Logitech game controller).
“At some point, safety just is pure waste,” Rush once told a journalist. Unfortunately, it can be hard to know exactly where that point is. But it is now possible to hear what it sounds like when you’re on the wrong side of it—and far below the surface of the ocean.
