• Khrux@ttrpg.network
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    11 months ago

    Fun fact, sperm whales can generate a sonar click at 230dB. Decibels are a logarithmic scale so increasing by only a few dB is basically double the volume.

    A sperm whale may swim past you, think you’re interesting and give a little click to scan you, and basically stun or kill you instantly.

    • Agent_Engelbert@linux.community
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      11 months ago

      Wow. For real ???

      You learn something new everyday.

      But yeah, I never saw divers getting stunned/ killed even when diving near whales.

      It could be that it never happened, but that’s like such a high variance to have never happened.

    • force@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      i believe it’s 6 dB is 2x the sound pressure and 10 dB is 2x the perceived volume?

      • Khrux@ttrpg.network
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        11 months ago

        I couldn’t find any report of a death but here is a credible source that it’s possible. Sperm whales are particularly rare of course, and intelligent enough to probably know it’s deadly, so it’s no surprise it’s rare.