( CNN ) -- Australian researchers released an audio recording Wednesday of an underwater sound that they say could possibly be related to the final moments of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 . It 's a long shot , but researchers at Curtin University near Perth , Australia , have been studying records from underwater listening devices , including those meant to monitor for signs of underwater nuclear explosions , in an effort to help find the missing plane . `` One signal has been detected on several receivers that could be related to the crash , '' said Alec Duncan with the university 's Centre for Marine Science and Technology ( CMST ) . Researchers have been analyzing the very low frequency sound for weeks to see if it was `` the impact of the aircraft on the water or the implosion of parts of the aircraft as it sank , '' Duncan said . `` But ( the source of the noise ) is just as likely to be a natural event . '' Low frequency signals can travel thousands of miles through water under favorable circumstances , at about 1 mile per second , Duncan said . But `` at the moment ( the sound ) appears to be inconsistent with other data about the aircraft position , '' he said . That 's because researchers at Curtin University believe the sound came from an area thousands of miles to the northwest of the current search area in the southern Indian Ocean . And even then , they have n't been able to pinpoint the source . Duncan says his team has calculated an `` uncertainty box '' for the signal 's origin . It 's area that stretches some 2,485 miles in length from southeast to northwest across the Indian Ocean , and spans some 124 to 186 miles in width at its widest point . The center of the long , narrow box is south of the tip of India , as shown in a map released Wednesday . The university on Wednesday released an audio clip captured by one of the listening devices , off of Perth . Duncan says his team has sped up the recording 10 times to make it audible to the human ear . It also shared charts of acoustic signal plots showing what various devices detected . Searching in the right place ? The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight continues to focus along an arc hundreds of kilometers long , the area where investigators believe the Boeing 777 ran out of fuel , about 1,000 miles off the coast of Western Australia . Martin Dolan , the chief commissioner with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau ( ATSB ) , the organization leading the search into MH370 at the request of Malaysia , says an international team of experts continues to review the analysis of Inmarsat satellite data and aircraft performance . In a television exclusive , Dolan told CNN 's `` Erin Burnett OutFront '' he remains confident the final resting place of MH370 is somewhere along that arc , the so-called `` partial handshake '' with the satellite : . `` We 've seen all the data . We 've seen all the calculations . We are reviewing the calculations and are also developing our own model to cross check and verify that information , '' Dolan told Burnett . When asked last week about the underwater sound being analyzed by the team at Curtin University , along with Geoscience Australia , a government agency , Dolan was skeptical . `` We think that those detections may have been interesting from the point of view of the direction they came , but other characteristics make it unlikely that they are associated with MH370 , '' he said . The ATSB first referenced these signals in a document posted on its website on May 26 . Listening below the surface . As was the case with the Inmarsat satellite -- a communications satellite whose data was analyzed by Malaysia Airlines MH370 investigators as a navigational aide -- the analysis of the underwater signals involves the use of technology for a different purpose than its original intent . One of the devices , operated by Curtin University and located some 12 miles off Perth , is designed to listen to whales and other marine life . The other is for signs of underwater nuclear explosions , one of 11 operated worldwide by the U.N.-chartered Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization ( CTBTO ) as part of the International Monitoring System . Early in the search for Malaysia Flight 370 , the United Nations reported it had not detected any explosions or plane crashes on land or water from its sensors around the globe . But the recent efforts involve pairing CTBTO data with other sources to see what can be gleaned , officials said . `` One can always be hopeful , '' said Mark Prior , a seismic acoustic analyst with the CTBTO . The CTBTO 's hydro-acoustic stations detect low frequency sound in the 0-100 Hz range , and ca n't detect black box `` pings '' in the 30-40 kHz range , officials said . `` It 's possible ( to detect a plane crash ) , but the circumstances that would allow it would have to be very particular , '' said Prior . Prior said some of those circumstances might include a sloping sea bed . Another possible scenario : the origin of the sound would need to be near the listening device . The CTBTO 's system near Cape Leeuwin , the southwestern-most point of Australia , regularly captures signals of ice breaking noise from Antarctica and seismic activity from Indonesia , he said . `` There are other scenarios that would allow ( the hydrophones to detect a crash ) . But it 's not certain if there was an impact we would detect it , '' Prior said . Attempts were made following the 2009 crash of Air France 447 in the southern Atlantic Ocean to see if underwater listening devices had detected the plane 's impact . No data could be found . Years later , after the plane was located , CTBTO again checked its data , and still was not able to identify signals related to the crash .
An Australian newspaper released an audio clip and other information . Researchers have studied records from underwater listening devices . A sound that was picked up is not near the current dive area for MH370 . The academics say it could be related to the diving activity , or just a natural event .