There are no words!!

[Khrissi]

I absolutely believe it. In a very reductive nutshell, a decibel measurement (dB) expresses the acoustic energy of a sound. Importantly, decibels are logarithmic and increase in orders of magnitude (log10).

Human speech is usually 40-60 dB.

A rock concert is going to be at least 100 dB.

The Space Shuttle blast-off produces 160 dB.

The eruption of Krakatoa in 1883 - heard around the world - was 180 dB.

The click of a sperm whale can reach 236 dB.
​

That is an unbelievable amount of energy turned into vibrations. Run it through the nerves in your hands? Paralyzing.

Indeed. Only sub sonars have similar energy and focus underwater . Hence concerns at nuclear subs affecting migration routes. The guy was lucky . Just like holding yr hand in front of a microwave magnatron or radar for the potential damage it can do to tissue n bone. K

 

[Jcp2]

Star Trek IV.

 

[kelemvor]

"Scuba doesn't work, it's too loud. Only freediving."

Why not rebreathers?

If the clicks are a few hundred decibels, then it seem doubtful that some scuba bubbles would be much of an issue anyway.

 

[dewdropsonrosa]

I did the math out of curiosity. Assuming human speech is 60db and we're rounding off the sperm whale click to 230b, there are 17 orders of magnitude of difference.

This translates into one hundred quadrillion times more energy.

Quadrillion.