Sound travels nearly five times faster underwater than it does through air, moving at about 1,500 meters per second in seawater. This creates an acoustic world that operates by completely different rules than the one we experience on land. Whales exploit this property to communicate across entire ocean basins, calling to each other from distances of hundreds of miles away. A blue whale's song can travel farther underwater than a shout travels through air in a crowded room.
#sound propagation#marine biology#ocean acoustics#whale communication