650 Pilot Whales Beach in New Zealand
Pods of whales beach because they are suffering barotrauma in their cranial air spaces induced by rapid and excessive changes in diving pressures caused by (1) vertical thrusting seafloor earthquakes, (2) undersea volcanic explosions, (3) the sudden collapse of an undersea volcanic caldera, (4) the violent impact of a heavenly body with the ocean's surface, (5) the noise from a massive undersea landslide, (6) military sonar, and (7) explosives. Pilot whales spent 40 to 50% of their lives diving deep into the black depths of their undersea world looking for food. They use the most sophisticated acoustic sonar system ever known. Just like a bat flying in pitch black cave, the basics of the odontocete biosonar is the sending out of clicking sounds and reading the returning echoes. The clicks are produced by passing air through phonic lips similar to the human vocal cords and nasal air cavities. This air is supplied to the many nasal complexes from the lungs by the palatopharynge...