Loudest Recorded Sounds on the Planet
Consider this piece of history: On the morning of Aug. 27, 1883, ranchers on a sheep camp outside Alice Springs, Australia, heard a sound like two shots from a rifle. At that very moment, the Indonesian volcanic island of Krakatoa was blowing itself to bits 2,233 miles away.
San Diego State University conducted a study on this very subject Scientists think this is probably the loudest sound humans have ever accurately measured. Not only are there records of people hearing the sound of Krakatoa thousands of miles away, there is also physical evidence that the sound of the volcano’s explosion traveled all the way around the globe multiple times.
Sperm whale click 230 dB, to put that in perspective the Saturn V rocket clocked in at 204 dB. But the medium the sperm whale's click travels in, water, amplifies the energy of the noise which is why it is louder than the rocket. In reality the sound power level of the whale's click does not carry as much energy as the Saturn Rocket. The sperm whale's click in air would measure substantially lower (consider that decibels are logarithmic, like the earthquake measurement Richter Scale).
See this video below where a scientist describes his encounter in person recording sperm whale clicks and loses feeling in his arm as a result of the sonic power behind the sperm whale's guttural noise.