MYSTERY BOOMS

List of many of the meteor & fireball sightings over the last few years.

Earthquake Booms, Seneca Guns, and Other Sounds - Earthquake "booms" have been reported for a long time, and in the US they tend to occur more in the Northeastern US and along the East Coast. There have been many reports of "booms" that cannot be explained by man-made sources. No one knows for sure, but scientists speculate that these "booms" are probably small shallow earthquakes that are too small to be recorded, but large enough to be felt by people nearby. The most recent documented earthquake sounds were from a swarm of small earthquakes that unnerved the city of Spokane, WA in 2001. Many of the Spokane quakes were definitely accompanied by "booming sounds". The quakes in Spokane were shallow, sometimes only a mile or two deep. This probably contributed to all the noise they made. In New Madrid, Missouri, there are accounts of "artillery-like" sounds that were said to have occurred before or during the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812. Meteors exploding in the atmosphere are a possible cause. There does not appear to be any agreement on what causes the Seneca guns. They have been occurring in several places around the eastern U.S. and in India for at least a century or two.

2009 MYSTERY BOOMS
CANADA - 4/17/09 - Vancouver residents report mysterious, very loud, sound - Much of Vancouver got an ear-splitting wakeup call Friday morning. Was it an explosion? A volcanic eruption? A thunderclap? No one had an definitive explanation, despite many theories about the big bang that shook Vancouver shortly after 6 a.m. "We did have a weather front move through the area in the early-morning hours. But there were no lightning strikes at all in the area." Seismic monitors registered nothing out of the ordinary.

U.S. EAST COAST - 3/29/09 - The flashing lights and booming sounds seen over parts of the East Coast Sunday night were not a result of a man-made space object, according to the United States Air Force. It was first believed that the lights and sounds were caused by space junk related to the Russian rocket Soyuz docking with the International Space Stations Saturday. Whatever flashed through the sky followed the exact path the space junk was traveling over the eastern seaboard. Witnesses describe the flashes in the sky as being colored with yellows and oranges. Fireballs usually throw sparks that appear green followed by trains of blue and red. The loud explosion accompanying the balls of fire in the sky could be explained if the object was a rocket tank with residual amounts of booster fuel. The flashes and booms that people heard prompted calls to 911 and the National Weather Service late Sunday night. The calls were numerous enough for the National Weather Service to release this statement late Sunday night: "Numerous reports have been called in to this office and into local law enforcement concerning what appeared to be flashes of light in the sky over the Suffolk/Virginia Beach area. We are confident in saying that this was not lightning...and have been in contact with military and other government agencies to determine the cause. So far...we have not seen or heard of any damage from this and will continue to inquire as to the cause."
The bright fireball Sunday evening was UNUSUAL even by fireball standards. So far we've heard of sightings from Maryland to North Carolina. "At precisely 9:40 p.m. EDT... Suddenly the ground lit up a bright green color. Gazing skyward we saw what appeared to be brilliant fireball meteor. As it moved across the sky NNE between Ursa Minor and Ursa Major it turned from a green color to a brilliant orange, with a white core. Two and a half minutes later we heard a low-pitched rumbling sound. I've been observing more than 40 years but have never seen a meteor this bright. It was absolutely spectacular!" Meteor specialists perk up especially at reports of rumbling or booming in the minute or two after a fireball. If a meteoroid penetrates deep enough into the atmosphere that sounds can reach the ground (as opposed to being refracted upward), it's a sign that the meteoroid survived low enough that it likely dropped fragments on the ground. The fireball reportedly lasted only about 5 to 8 seconds. Re-entering satellites move more slowly, last much longer, and generally cross the whole sky. So the hunt for fallen meteorites is back on.

TASMANIA - 3/21/09 - UNUSUAL lights that sparked a wave of concern were probably a meteor or space junk. The unusual trail of lights seen speeding across the sky on Saturday afternoon was most likely a natural phenomenon. But the source of the mystery lights remains unknown. Police took dozens of calls about 1.30pm from people around the state who saw the lights heading south. Police said the sightings had triggered fears that a plane or a meteor was about to crash. If the light had been a meteor, it was likely to have either burnt up before it reached the ground or landed somewhere in the ocean.

SOUTH CAROLINA - 3/20/09 - A loud noise was heard shortly before 3 a.m. Friday morning in Aiken, Richmond and Columbia counties. Local law enforcement agencies also report hearing the boom, but no one knows what caused it. Two Aiken County Sheriff’s Office deputies reportedly saw a fireball in the sky.
From the heavens came a fire ball, and a boom. Aiken is a town that’s not easily fooled, and is questioning the reports that the flash, and bang in the early morning sky, was a meteor. “I’ve heard the meteorite story, I’ve heard the airplane sonic boom story, I don’t know." "I’m not buying the meteor explanation, no."
There is a report that power was lost over downtown Augusta, Georgia (at least) at around 3am that morning. It was restored by 4am. Of course, this could be a coincidence with the timing of the boom. Since the collision of Russian and American satellites on Feb. 10, 2009, there have been a number of similar (unexplained) incidents reported (booms, meteor-like objects, etc.).
Video evidence of boom and light - 3 property surveillance tapes captured odd footage. “...area right here, where the little swirl came down…there it went! There it went!“ The amazed owner never heard the sound…but after hearing reports, she believes she’s recorded light from the unidentified “object” that was seen and heard all over the CSRA, Friday morning. She has 3 surveillance cameras that captured 3 different images from that morning. Two cameras show something falling…this object fell a few seconds before the flash on the deck was seen…the other happened 42 seconds after the flash. A meteorite hunter is plotting points on a map of the area to try and pinpoint exactly where debris fell.

OHIO - 3/18/09 - The Ashtabula County Emergency Management Agency fielded between six and 12 calls this morning from people who say they felt a small earthquake. The calls regarding the tremor came in around 9:45 a.m. Officials in Ashtabula sent the info along to the Ohio Seismic Network for further investigation. There were no reports of any injuries or damage. Earthquakes and tremors are not uncommon in northeast Ohio especially along the lake shore. [no quakes recorded in Ohio on the USGS site]

ALABAMA - 3/12/09 - News 5 received reports from Spanish Fort to the Mississippi state line about a big boom around 2:00 p.m. that shook their homes. So far, no one has an answer for it. The National Weather Service had no reports. The USGS is not showing any signs of seismic activity in the area. In fact, the closest earthquake to Mobile within the past week was 718 miles away in Sullivan, Missouri on Saturday night. Eglin Air Force Base says they were not doing any training flights that afternoon which could've caused a sonic boom. And both the Mobile County Sheriff's Office and EMA report nothing unusual. But something definitely happened and it caused a lot of concern. Especially for a West Mobile woman who says dishes fell out of her cabinets and broke on the floor. Whatever it was, it appeared to have come from the West and moved East.

NEW YORK - 3/16/09 - Staten Island residents are trying to figure out what caused a loud boom that was heard in at least six neighborhoods. The explosion-like blast rattled windows of homes at about 7:55 p.m. Monday. It could be heard for miles. Police and firefighters responded to numerous calls to 911, but the loud noise remained a mystery on Tuesday. Police say they found no explosion anywhere in the borough and Con Edison reported no outages or transformer explosions. Last week, witnesses reported big booms of a different sort. A brilliant yellow streak was seen in the skies north of the city, in Westchester and Rockland counties. Some residents believed it was a meteorite fireball. It was just before 8 p.m. on Monday and again six minutes later. Suddenly, a powerful boom, or some say a pair of booms, reverberated through about half a dozen Staten Island neighborhoods, rattling windows, shaking buildings and sending people running into the streets. “Not a normal sound. It was heavy and low.” Some saw a flash.

NEW YORK - 3/7/09 - There were reports of a big "boom" and a brilliant yellow streak in the skies north of New York City. There was no seismic activity in the region. The sound early Saturday has been likened to a window-rattling explosion. Police got a flurry of reports from people in Scarsdale, Mount Vernon, Yonkers, Tuckahoe, Eastchester and Bronxville. An witness to the spectacle early Saturday in Westchester County apparently saw a meteorite fireball. A collector is offering $10,000 for a piece of the meteorite. Another "boom" was reported early Monday in neighboring Rockland County.
A second loud boom - 3/9/09 - may have rattled windows in parts of Rockland County Monday - and its origin remains as mysterious as the explosive noise that blew through southern Westchester County over the weekend. "It was about 5:15 a.m., and it woke up the whole house. The house was shaking. It sounded like someone had flown an F-16 over the house." An earlier unexplained "boom" shook homes in parts of southern Westchester early Saturday. That noise, and the one that reportedly woke up parts of Rockland yesterday, was unlikely to be an earthquake, weather pattern, falling space debris or a civilian aircraft, officials from local, state and federal agencies said. The likelihood of the boom being from a meteorite would be "very rare." "When people say bigger, they usually mean brighter. It is possible that something in the atmosphere can do that, but it is very rare. But seeing it moving in a downward arc would be an optical illusion. You would not be able to see that." There also have been no confirmed reports of seismic activity over the weekend.

CALIFORNIA - 3/4/09 - had a similar boom mystery a few days earlier. The search for the cause of the sonic boom Central Coast residents felt Wednesday morning may be a bust. A Federal Aviation Administration official said the search for the source of the mysterious morning rattling has turned up nothing. "We reviewed all the radar data for flights in the airspace in Northern California around the time that people reported this boom. There were several military aircraft operating but they were slow. None of these aircraft were going supersonic." The Orange County Register reported a sonic boom 12 hours before what was heard on the Central Coast on Wednesday. The mystery has spurred its share of conspiracy theories. On the Sentinel Web site, readers comments suggested the boom was E.T.'s return, an intercontinental missile fired by North Korea, a chemtrail weather modification program or test runs of new, secret U.S. Navy jets. Orange County residents had similar theories after thousands of doors and windows across the county rattled and vibrated. Some suggested an asteroid was the source of the shaking. The asteroid passed by Monday night. A U.S. Geological Survey spokesperson said the shaking was not caused by an earthquake, though several people called 911 to report a possible rattler after the boom.

CALIFORNIA - 3/4/09 - Mysterious rattling reported in county; earthquake ruled out as the cause. Even though Central Coast residents felt rattled Wednesday morning, the source of the shaking was not under their feet, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. At 9:15 a.m., USGS sensors detected ground movement, but the signals did not resemble an earthquake. The movement appeared to originate off the Monterey Bay coast. "Our best guess is that it was a sonic boom from a jet off the coast. That's all we can say scientifically." The Air Force reports it did not have jets flying off the coast that morning. After receiving calls about a boom in Southern California, the Federal Aviation Administration said it is searching through flights they monitored Wednesday morning to find the supersonic jet. "We haven't found anything yet that would explain the sonic boom." "The energy travelled across our seismic sensor network at the velocity of a compressional wave in air rather than the velocity of a similar wave through the ground, which is much faster." "I was outside and heard two loud booms. My husband said the house shook quickly, like a truck hit it, not the typical earthquake shaking, much quicker." One man heard four loud booms - two before 10 a.m. and another two around noon. "They made our windows rattle. It was like a blast, it sounded like a dynamite blast almost." Residents in Salinas and Monterey also reported feeling the boom. The ground did move Wednesday morning also. The USGS Web site reported four minor earthquakes in the region. A magnitude 2.0 earthquake hit near Los Altos Hills at 8:40 a.m. Two quakes struck outside Tres Pinos: a 1.3 magnitude at 5:42 a.m. and a 1.6 at 7:52 a.m. The shaking detected at 9:15 a.m. was not posted on their site, because it was not classified as an earthquake. At 11:12 a.m., a 1.7 movement was measured in a quarry near Portola Valley. The USGS attributed that to a probable quarry explosion.

IDAHO - March 3, 2009 - Mysterious 'skyquakes' return to valley, reported across U.S. - Roughly a year after a series of bizarre rumbling was reported across the Magic Valley, similar incidents are being reported again in south-central Idaho and northern Nevada. On March 3, the Southern Idaho Regional Communications Center heard from people from Buhl to Kimberly and Jerome who reported a loud boom and rumbling that evening. One off-duty dispatcher felt it in Twin Falls, and one supervisor said he felt it at his own home in Kimberly. "I thought (at first) it was my neighbors moving heavy equipment." Farther south, residents of Spring Creek, Lamoille and Elko, Nev., last week reported periodic rumbling and occasional shaking over several days, all at varying times of day. Mining companies in the area said that they haven't done anything unusual that would cause the rumbles and suggested that they may be sonic booms from military aircraft. But the rumblings heard on and off for the past few years last just a few seconds too long and are too continuous to be sonic booms. Mountain Home Air Force Base officials don't believe they're the cause. The closest jet at the time was 23 or 24 miles away from Twin Falls and another base doesn't report any training at the time. But geologists still said that sonic booms may be the best explanation. No earthquakes were recorded anywhere close enough to southern Idaho to have caused the noise at the time. The Idaho Geological Survey wondered about extremely tiny earthquakes, noting that scientists aren't able to record so called "micro-earthquakes." But they still don't believe an earthquake was the culprit, and noted the reports were too widespread to be something local, such as large quarry blasts. "What it actually is, is anyone's guess."
Scientists gave similar responses last March, when odd rumblings happened regularly at 11:23 p.m. for several days. But the military then also denied any involvement.
Often called "skyquakes," the unexplained booms have become a regular occurrence worldwide in recent years, often coming in waves over the same area, according to reports on Web sites such as www.abovetopsecret.com, that track the phenomenon. Southern California news outlets reported a strong skyquake that rattled windows across the Los Angeles-Orange County area at 9:20 p.m. on March 3 just hours after the one felt in the Magic Valley. The following day, March 4, another skyquake was felt over California's Central Coast region. Seismic stations around Monterey Bay, Calif., recorded a compression wave at 9:15 a.m., but the wave lacked the up-and-down shear that usually characterizes an earthquake. And on March 7 residents of Westchester County, NY, reported being shaken from their sleep by a pre-dawn skyquake that rattled the Hudson River Valley area just north of New York City. While widely scattered, the latest string of skyquakes all resulted in the same round of denials from U.S. Geological Survey officials (no earthquakes), civil officials (no construction blasting or other known explosions) and military and civilian air traffic controllers (no exercises or high-speed flights).

FLORIDA - 2/19/09 - Sanibel residents reported this morning a loud boom and shaking on the island. Officials with the City of Sanibel Police Department said they have received calls about a disturbance in the area and are investigating. There is no information on what could have caused the noise and shaking. “It sounded and felt like an earthquake. The walls were shaking.” The shaking lasted about four seconds and occurred around 10:43 a.m.

SWAZILAND - 2/18/09 - The geology survey and mines department says it is still consulting to find the cause of the tremor that was experienced in the country on Wednesday night. They would only make conclusions after comparing reports from their counterparts in other countries. The Swaziland Meteorological services has since said it will work with the geology department to find the cause of the tremors. "We are aware that there were tremors in some parts of the country and we are working on finding out causes." The frequency of the tremors is worrying. "Climate has to do with a lot of things like volcanoes, deserts, so the frequency of the tremors could be early signs of these things." The nation was told it should not worry as both departments would do everything possible to find out how serious the situation is. "As the meteorology department, we cannot have all the answers to the nation but all we can say is we will be observing the situation. We will consult the geology department on the situation."

AUSTRALIA - 2/5/09 to 2/18/09 - Booms still a mystery - Police are still bewildered by the explosions that rocked Guanaba in the past two weeks and say no one has come forward with any information about what could have caused them. Residents of the area first heard an explosion that shook their houses on February 5 at 8.30pm. The following Wednesday, February 11, a similar noise was heard, although residents said it sounded further away. Police have established it was about 2km from the first one but that is where their investigations have come to halt.

TEXAS - 2/15/09 - Sonic booms and at least one fireball in the sky were reported in Texas on Sunday, less than a week after two satellites collided in space and a day after the Federal Aviation Administration asked U.S. pilots to watch for "falling space debris". There were no reports of ground strikes or interference with aircraft in flight. Video shot by a photographer from News 8 TV in Austin showed what appeared to be a meteor-like white fireball blazing across a clear blue sky Sunday morning. Most of the reports the FAA received came in about midday Sunday in an area of Texas from Dallas south to Austin. The Texas Department of Public Safety received calls from residents surprised by sonic booms about 11 a.m. Calls came from an area from Dallas to Houston. (photo)

MINNESOTA - summer 2008 to 2/21/09 - The enduring mystery of the south Minneapolis explosions rattling both windows and neighbors' nerves has once again reared its head. A new spate of nighttime blasts, roughly 100, have been going off since summer, something that has been occurring intermittently for nearly three years. The last time that police investigated the spate of explosions, in 2006 and 2007, they were finally able to determine the source: fireworks, most likely set off by teenagers. This time, though, only about half can be explained. Fireworks and exploding electrical transformers account for the explained half, "but for the rest, we just don't know. We can't explain it." The most troubling, if far-fetched, theory -- that anarchists were in the Mississippi River gorge, practicing their explosive skills in preparation for the Republican National Convention -- didn't pan out. "It was a real homeland security concern so we were down there in the river with the St. Paul cops, but that wasn't it." Undercover cops have been working the neighborhoods where the blasts have been reported but have enjoyed only mixed success. For example, on Monday shortly after midnight, three explosions were reported and were quickly determined to be fireworks. Two more reported several hours later remain head scratchers. "There's one theory that competing groups of some kind are trying to see who can come up with the loudest explosions down by the river." Another theory that didn't hold was the possibility that some unknown kind of chemical reaction was occurring in the city's water treatment system. Although most appear to be occurring near the river, sound echo patterns have sent the noise across a wide swath of the city along the river from roughly E. Lake Street to Ford Parkway. And they've been heard by residents dozens of blocks to the west. Just as in 2007, news of the explosions has spread like electronic wildfire among residents, who have lit up neighborhood e-mail lists with their accounts of the noise. Last time, theories ran from pipe bombs to sonic booms to exploding gas lines. This time, the theories have run more along the lines of propane cannons and violent freight train car coupling. Police are continuing their investigation.

The sky is falling, but it's meteors, not satellite debris, that lit up the sky in Kentucky, Texas and Italy on Friday, 2-13-09. Three fireball meteors were seen over Italy just hours before the lights began streaking across Kentucky. The Kentucky light and sound show was seen over a large area of the state, with some people saying it shook houses and briefly turned night into day. Then, on Sunday, 2-15-09, runners in a marathon in Austin, Texas, saw a fireball so bright that it was visible in daylight. "Meteors are seen all the time. Occasionally they are very bright and lead to a sonic boom-type noise." A spokeswoman with the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, which tracks man-made objects entering the Earth's atmosphere over North America from Colorado Springs, Colo., said she was not aware of Friday's reports from Kentucky. But they sounded similar to what was coming out of Texas on Sunday. NORAD saw nothing on its radar on Friday night or over the weekend and there was "definitely nothing" from last week's satellites hurtling through the sky. "If something was re-entering the Earth's atmosphere, we'd track it."

FLORIDA - MARCO ISLAND - 2/4/09 & 2/5/09 - Is it a bomb? Is it a plane? Or is it a sonic boom? Loud bangs have Islanders looking to the sky with wonder. Occasional loud booms had Marco Islanders and others in Southern Collier County wondering what the noise was Wednesday and Thursday. Police officers heard the noise too, but they weren't sure what they were. "Some residents even thought it was an earthquake. We checked into it and there were no earthquakes in our area." While the military may not confirm or deny any jets in the area, residents were reporting Air Force sightings off the Gulf coast the last two days.

PENNSYLVANIA - 2/2/09 - Several residents of Bethany, Pa. reported feeling a possible quake at 7 p.m. Monday, about two and a half hours BEFORE a 3.0 magnitude earthquake was recorded in Morris County, New Jersey. Monday evening at approximately 7:00 p.m. the earth shook on Bethany Hill, Old Wayne Street, Sugar Street, Spruce Street and on Wayne Street. Coincidentally, at that time, a large boom and a burst of light transpired on Sugar Street. It was enough to make people come out of their homes on Sugar Streetrush to the window, "and what to their wondering eyes should appear", but a huge flame, a light that shot up in the sky. Neighbors on Old Wayne Street came out in the snow to check their houses to see "what fell on their roofs". They thought it could have been a whole tree that fell on the roof and onto the ground. One citizen thought the plow had driven into his home! A second boom was felt, but much lighter in nature. What could it be? The police responded, but there were no accidents reported , there was nothing to investigate. "We couldn't ALL be crazy! There was a lot of telephoning going on and together with the moving and the shaking, we accepted the fact that we actually did experience a strange phenomenon!" The earthquake in New Jersey apparently occurred on a fault line that runs to Bethany.

ARKANSAS - 1/20/09 - From rattling windows to big loud booms, Sequoyah County residents reported feeling tremors earlier this week, and now officials are investigating the matter. The reports come from as far north as Marble City and as far south as the Le Flore County border. Calls have been pouring into the county sheriff's office. Residents say they heard rumbling noises, and saw their windows and sliding glass doors shaking. Officials say there is no evidence at this time of seismic activity, but they'll continue to look into it.

NEBRASKA - 1/20/09 - loud booms heard in Grand Island Tuesday night and Wednesday morning are believed to be starling control measures or the acts of curious youth. The Central Platte Natural Resources Distric began shooting off propane cannons last Friday night around dusk for about seven to 14 days. But Grand Island/Hall County Emergency Management said the 911 center received calls about loud booms from “one end of town to the other,” and the calls came after dusk. They were reported between 9:30 and 10 p.m. Tuesday and again around 7 a.m. Wednesday. “There were no reports of fire, no reports of damage, no reports of power outages or any infrastructure damage.” The boom almost sounded like a “sonic boom” that is sometimes heard from traveling aircraft. Calls to the Central Nebraska Regional Airport were not immediately returned. Area youth may be experimenting with something like a “dry ice bomb.” When dry ice is dropped into a 2-liter bottle of water, a loud explosion can be the result. The technique has been featured on the cable television show “Mythbusters.” The city of Grand Island has contracted with the U.S. Department of Agriculture for starling control in the past, but no such work is currently under way. “The city has not received any calls from citizens regarding problems with starlings." USDA officials have been tracking the birds. They believe the birds are moving to the area later in the season this year, and for the most part, the flock that is here stays in Grand Island the majority of the year.

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2008 -

NORTH CAROLINA - 9/7/08 - Emergency officials said residents in Clayton and Wendell reported hearing loud booms that shook their houses Sunday evening at approximately 5:45 p.m. People in Selma and Middlesex reported the same thing. Emergency crews were searching the area for the source of the noise. Some residents have speculated that the noise might have been the result of a sonic boom, a term that is commonly used to refer to the shocks caused by the supersonic flight of a military aircraft. However, officials at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Wayne County said planes are not allowed to produce a sonic boom. Plus, all of the base's F-15s completed landing at 4:15 p.m. (additional individual reports at link)

MYSTERY BOOMS -
MINNESOTA - 8/14/08 - People living in the Longfellow neighborhood in Minneapolis were jolted awake in the middle of the night Thursday by a big boom. However, police said they aren’t sure what caused the explosion. This is the second time in a week an unexplained explosion has been heard. "I heard an explosion. It sounded kind of loud and it reverberated," said a man who was jolted awake by the sound. He thought it was coming from Longfellow Park and investigated. "It was rather scary. I walked outside, meandered down half asleep and didn't see anything." Blocks away others heard it too. Police took calls stretching a 14-block radius from the 3000 block of Lake Street to 44th Street. "I knew it wasn't a gunshot, so it had to be a transformer." But Xcel Energy said a transformer didn’t blow and said, "nothing in our reports indicates an explosion from our equipment." Police said they don’t believe the explosions are terroristic or connected to the upcoming Republican National Convention. While authorities aren't saying much about the two explosions, reports are calling them issues of Homeland Security.
Reports of unexplained explosions in Minneapolis actually started years ago. Residents said another explosion was heard in a 14 block area in south Minneapolis from Lake Street to 44th Street East. (video of residents discussing the startling noises)

MORE MYSTERY RUMBLING -
CANADA - JULY 31, 2008 - Mystery deepens surrounding Kincardine area explosions - The mystery has deepened surrounding explosions that shook the Kincardine area last Thursday with University of Western Ontario scientists ruling out a meteor shower. “Something pretty significant exploded south and west of Goderich and Kincardine. It could have exploded out in Lake Huron." Highly sensitive devices installed near Lucan by Western to monitor low frequency sound waves detected a series of four impulses that lasted about a minute, starting at 11:12 p.m. on July 31. Five minutes later a low frequency rumbling was detected coming from the Kincardine area. “If you had been in London and it was really quiet outside, you should just have been able to hear the low rumble from these explosions. That’s UNUSUAL at this sort of a distance." With Ontario’s largest nuclear plant located just north of Kincardine, the explosions have triggered international media interest. Officials at Bruce Power have said there was nothing unusual at the nuclear station. South Bruce OPP were inundated with 911 calls shortly after 11 p.m. that night with residents describing walls shaking and windows rattling. The signals detected at Lucan, probably five or six minutes after the original blast, were intense. If it had been caused by a meteor, there should have been a bright fireball in the sky. The university has a camera system at Kincardine aimed at the sky to capture the image of any meteors. “We have already looked during the time interval of interest. It was clear that night and no meteor.” The monitoring devices at Lucan indicate all of the explosions occurred in the same area south and west of the Kincardine area and south of Goderich. In the past, the same instruments have picked up mining explosions in Wyoming in the western U.S. and the Shell refinery explosion in Sarnia. “Based on frequency content and the phenomenology of the signals, these are not consistent from what we would expect from a meteor at all." But the signals also don’t fit another theory, that it was caused by a sonic boom from a jet. “They are not all that consistent with shockwaves you would see with supersonic aircraft.” The closest fit for the signals from the explosion, particularly the low rumbling, would be surface blasting at a mine. The only mine in the area is Sifto Salt’s underground operation at Goderich. A worker at the mine who lives nearby said he has never felt any tremor from blasting at the salt mine that stretches under the lake.

MYSTERY BOOMS -
AUSTRALIA - July 27, 2008 - Sunday afternoon around sunset there were a series of loud explosive sounds heard from one end of Magnetic Island to the other and nobody seems to know what it was. "It could very clearly be heard in Horseshoe and Nelly bays (different people I spoke to) and at first sounded like distant thunder. But it continued at fairly regular intervals for at least an hour - just before sunset - if not longer." Others heard the sound but, as they reside on the West coast, assumed it was just more live firing practice by the air force on Halifax Bay. However, after making enquiries they learned there were no exercises being conducted at the that time. Calls to the Townsville Met Office, the Harbour Master and even Cluden race track (did you have a fireworks display after the races?) resulted in three big "Nos". heard the sound.

MYSTERY VIBRATION [perhaps related to the mystery booms?]-
WISCONSIN - JULY 24, 2008 - A couple claims a mysterious noise plagues their house in Green Bay. The noise has been plaguing them for two years and sounds something like a rumbling motor, with a subtle vibration that won't quit. Then it stops - especially when they try to show city officials or acoustic experts what they're hearing. "It's like there's a semi parked right outside with the engine running, but when you look out, there isn't one." The couple have lived in the same house for 42 years. The problem only developed over the last two years. When they leave, the don't hear the noise, so they know it's not some health problem the two share. City officials hired a company for $1,000 worth of testing in the house this spring, but the tester came up with no noise and no significant vibration. The local alderman has heard the sound. "It's like an engine thing, a low-frequency vibration. I think it would be an annoyance." The immediate neighbors haven't complained, although some people have said they heard the sound.

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2007

CALIFORNIA - 12/4/07 - Worried citizens who believed another wildfire was burning in Los Angeles called authorities in what was believed to be remnants from a possible meteor shower. "We received several 911 calls from concerned citizens early today about fire being seen across the Los Angeles skies. We believe they may be seeing remnants of a meteor shower in the sky and want to assure people there are no wildfires currently burning in Los Angeles.

TENNESSEE - 11-20-07 - A ground and air search of northern Bedford County was conducted Tuesday night after two area residents reported possibly seeing an airplane going down. Nothing was found as of Wednesday morning. Emergency workers were inititally notified of grass fires near a subdivision on Pepper Hill Road and on Eady Road west and north of Deason about 7:45 p.m. Deputies were later told both callers said they'd seen what they thought was a plane. No fires were found. Also, a man said a loud "boom" shook his room at the Tennessee Fire and Codes Academy, Unionville-Deason Road. Rescue personnel did a "dark search" of an area behind the academy and checked several small, private airstrips in the area. Four-wheelers were used to check several areas described by callers as possible crash sites. A helicopter was brought in later, finding nothing except a burning brush pile on Ebb Joyce Road. [A webpage reader has reported a 20-30 second loud, low rumbling around the 1st of November in Knoxville, Tennessee.]

11/1/07 -
CANADA - at 3:20 am there was a big boom experienced in the Vancouver area of British Columbia, Canada. It was heard over a large area, including Vancouver, North Vancouver, Burnaby and Coquitlam. "It was of such a force in Coquitlam that it shook our whole house and knocked down ceiling panels in our basement. A friend (80) reported that she was also awakened by the boom and when she looked out her window she saw large flashes in the sky, which she attributed to a sizeable fireworks display!" (This has not been reported on the news sites and was dismissed by radio reporters as thunder.)

10/11/07 -
AUSTRALIA - The BIGGEST QUAKE IN 40 YEARS to hit the Great Southern has cracked the walls of one man’s home but left his neighbours’ homes unscathed. The quake, which registered 4.8 on the Richter scale, left his house trashed. “I do know that it happened just around 8 oclock because my clocks all jumped off the wall, along with all my pictures, and the clocks stopped.” While many people reported that the quake had shaken their house, for this man the experience was quite different. “I never had a shake I just had an almighty boom.” He has been expecting something like this for some time. “For the last few months I’ve also been getting these booms and it took a while to work out what it was. It sounded like something landing on the roof – we’re talking something pretty heavy, not like a swan or a bird, more like an elephant. I’d ring my neighbours up after and say ‘did you hear that? Did you feel it?’ and they’d say ‘no we never felt anything’. I almost felt like I was going mad, that I was just imagining it although I know one time my daughters were here staying with me and they said ‘what is that dad?’ and I said ‘I don’t really know’. So it’s been very localised but it hasn’t happened for at least a month which had me concerned - either it was going away, or this was coming and this is what came." (photos)

INDIA - A geologist has visited 8 Gir villages to study mysterious rumbling sounds that have been occurring for the past several days. He said that the sounds are certainly not emanating from earthquake tremors or its aftershock, but were caused due to "block system", which might be the after-effect of the 2001 massive earthquake in Kutch. However, he refused to elaborate. Asked about his observation of the recurring phenomena, he replied that he cannot say anything with certainty about its root cause. The villages of Haripar, Jasapar, Moruka, Suruva, Vadla, Akol Vadi, Rasoolpara and Hadamatiya experienced the rumbling sounds on the 8th, spreading panic among the people who rushed out of their houses as the vessels started making a huge rattling sound. Many houses developed cracks on the walls. All of the villages fall within a radius of 15 kilometers. The village of Jaspar experienced 15 such sounds. These events are not new, and three years ago such sounds were felt in Haripur. A seismograph installed between October and December of 2001 has so far recorded more than a thousand tremors, ranging up to 3 on the Richter scale. The Haripur village and nearby areas had again experienced the rumbling sounds during December of 2004.

9/18/07 -
CALIFORNIA - Mysterious shaking along Central Coast on Monday morning - Folks in the Five Cities Area reported they felt an earthquake. People as far away as Santa Maria to Los Osos also felt shaking. One San Luis Obispo woman said she saw her windows shake three times about five minutes apart. "It really shook, and I though we're having an earthquake, but nothing else was shaking. So I don't know. Just the windows? Just the windows." The U.S. Geological Survey is not reporting any earthquakes in the area. Monday's shaking is consistent with past sonic booms. Action News contacted several military bases across the region but none would confirm that that was the cause.

8/17/07 -
CALIFORNIA - 8/11/07 - 12:09 am - Representatives with the Sonora Police Department and both the Tuolumne and Calaveras County Sheriff's Departments say they fielded numerous calls early in the morning in regards to a "loud boom," and "structures shaking." There were several calls from residents who reported seeing "a blue light," just before the "loud boom." The incident reportedly occurred at 12:09am. The Police Department notes that it also received a call from a resident in Tuolumne, in which a female reported seeing what she thought was fireworks, and then something spiraling over her house. Early indication from the law enforcement agencies is that the loud boom was somehow the result of a meteor shower.

MYSTERIOUS SHAKING-
8/7/07 -
AUSTRALIA - It might have felt like an earthquake to Sydney coastal residents but it wasn't, scientists say. Dozens of Sydney coastal residents reported their houses shaking this afternoon (8/7) but Geoscience Australia said it was not an earthquake. Residents reported windows shaking about 3.45pm (AEST) in the eastern beach suburbs of Maroubra, Clovelly, Bondi and Tamarama. "We're pretty happy to say that it wasn't an earthquake. At this stage Geoscience Australia has not recorded any seismic activity. It would certainly have to be very, very small for us not to register it." Radio talkback callers also reported several houses shaking on Sydney's north shore and northern beaches.
AUSTRALIA - A mystery earth tremor has been reported by residents in eastern Sydney, but the A number of ABC radio listeners have also reported feeling a tremor on the north shore and eastern suburbs. A defence spokeswoman also ruled out a sonic boom from high speed aircraft.

MYSTERY BOOMS -
MISSOURI - 7/23/07 - The United States Air Force has launched an investigation and hope to provide residents who heard a series of loud booms Monday with an answer to clear up any confusion. Military officials at Whiteman Air Force Base at Knob Noster, Missouri said that their staff would do everything they could to determine what caused all the commotion Monday afternoon. Air Force personnel were not aware of any missions or training exercises in the area at that time that would have caused the booms that were accompanied by shaking in some areas. Residents from one end of Camden county to the other reported hearing loud, sonic-type boom sounds beginning around 2:15 p.m. The sounds and shaking that accompanied the booms shook windows, rattled dishes and may have caused some damage to walls where the sheet rock cracked. The sheriff's department had contacted Whiteman, the St. Louis Earthquake Center and other agencies to find out what caused the noise.

7/19/07 -
CALIFORNIA - Military aircraft appear to be responsible for sonic booms and shaking that residents around the county were feeling Wednesday afternoon, July 18th, officials said. Edwards Air Force Base officials said they sent an F-22 airplane out to a testing area about 50 miles off the coast that could have explained the rattling residents reported. But the area is also used by other branches of the U.S. military that could have had aircraft in the area. In addition, NASA was conducting sonic boom testing at the base that may have been heard by residents along the coast. The base is located in the Mojave Desert, near the Kern and Los Angeles county line. Sheriff’s Department officials reported receiving dozens of calls from residents around the county who reported feeling shaking and loud booms at three different times before about 1:30 p.m. Residents from California Valley to Arroyo Grande reported feeling the shaking and hearing the booms.
Comments from residents - "I've lived in California all of my 48 years, and I've heard sonic booms many times before, including the big double boom of the shuttle coming in. This was much different. It was 3 or 4 seconds of what sounded like a jackhammer on my walls, followed by a window rattling boom. If the Air Force is playing with a new secret toy, fine, say "no comment", but this story isn't working for me at all."
"I thought we were seriously under attack. I got my dog ready to evacuate. A boom is a boom, an explosion and several second rumble is something very different. I'm not buying the story...


MORE MYSTERIOUS BOOMS -
7/9/07 -
SRI LANKA - The residents of Lunugamwehera in the Hambanthota district of Sri Lanka’s Southern Province say they experienced something similar to an earthquake in the early hours on Monday. The residents of Beralihela and adjacent villages say that the tremor was unexpected and the houses quivered with the earth shock around 12 to 12:30 in the middle of the night. However, a spokesman of the National Geological and Mines Bureau said that no earthquake that could have felt by Sri Lanka was recorded by the equipment at the centre.

5/15/07 -
TENNESSEE - Dozens of people in Knox County woke up to some rumbling Monday morning and investigators are still working to figure out what it was. Dozens of calls flooded central dispatch at about 1:15am, mostly from two neighborhoods off Northshore Drive in West Knoxville; Admiral's Landing and Northshore Landing. Many people tell us they woke up to loud rumbling and thought there were animals or prowlers in their basements or attics. Others thought there was some sort of explosion shaking the ground. "Half of our neighborhood had come outside and there was these constant shakes in the ground, constant thud. It felt like some type of missile attack. It wasn't an earthquake, I've been through an earthquake."

4/9/07 -
VIETNAM - An 'earthquake-like phenomenon' in central Vietnam sent residents into a panic. Hundreds of people in a village in Vietnam’s central highlands fled their homes in panic early Monday when a suspected earthquake hit the area. No one was hurt and scientists and authorities are studying the area to see if it was indeed an earthquake or some other phenomenon. Residents of A Klai village in Gia Lai province’s in La Pet commune said they had felt strong vibrations beneath the ground, houses shook violently, cracks had appeared on the walls, and the ground had sunk. Fissures up to 4 meters deep had opened up. Incredibly, however, all these were confined to a tiny area of around 50 meters, with areas beyond that remaining unaffected.

MYSTERY BOOMS BACK -
3/8/07 -
SOUTH CAROLINA - Newsrooms were flooded with calls about the mystery rumble observed Thursday morning. According to the National Earthquake Information Center, there is nothing to indicate there was an earthquake in the Charleston area. It doesn't rule out the possibility that it was a smaller quake, but they said it was most likely a sonic boom. However, the Charleston air traffic controller said there was nothing in the pattern at that time that is capable of producing a sonic boom. There are no reports of damage.
A big boom, followed by earthquake-like tremors. That's how people are describing what they felt Thursday morning. "The ground was shaking, the house was shaking, the windows were banging.” All those who felt it say it lasted seconds. Even the National Weather Channel was reporting a possible earthquake felt in the Charleston area. But since the 1800s, not a single report of a quake in that area has been confirmed. The National Earthquake Information Center says this isn't an earthquake since nothing was recorded on their seismographs. There is another possible explanation for this mystery according to the US Geological Survey. There is an unexplained phenomenon called Seneca Guns that sound like sonic booms and shake homes. There have been reports of Seneca Guns along the coasts in South Carolina and also in North Carolina and Virginia. In addition, there have been reports of such booms around Lake Seneca and Lake Cayuga in New York State. Some speculate this could be gas escaping from vents in the earth's surface, but no exact cause is known.

2/15/07 -
OHIO Something happened at around 9 p.m. that a lot of people heard. But nobody seems to have any idea what it was. “It” was a loud bang, something loud enough to be heard all over the county, and loud enough to make small objects move in houses. Rumors range from an earthquake to a meteor strike, a sonic boom to something ice-related. While we may never know for sure, at least one scientist believes the meteor could be the answer. There’s no evidence to suggest an earthquake could have caused the bang, especially not over the range specified. “The type of waves that I see is not earthquake-type stuff. What bothers me is we don’t see it anywhere else. Right now this is mysterious to me.” The National Weather Service’s station in Wilmington is equally lost, especially after hearing calls from the Cincinnati area. The only common factor is that each area was affected by Tuesday’s ice storm. “It definitely wasn’t thunder. We’re kind of stumped on that ourselves.” Not everyone agreed that it’s a meteor, however. Every contact one heard about the bang was writing from an area that got some layer of ice earlier this week. “I’m 100 percent certain that it’s ice. It’s only the areas that had a lot of ice. None have been from areas with just snow.” He did offer one idea, but not one that would explain the noise over such a large area. He described a phenomenon called a “frostquake,” in which water seeping into the ground and freezing can cause the earth to break up and create localized bangs.

2/4/07 -
TEXAS - Galveston County residents from League City to Texas City to Jamaica Beach reported hearing what sounded like a series of short explosions during the weekend. The sounds so worried some that the Texas City office of homeland security launched its own inquiry. “We started getting calls about 8 a.m. (Sunday, 2/4). We called all the plants, the Coast Guard, tried calling Ellington Field and can’t find where they came from.” The media liaison for the FBI said her agency had no reports of any unusual activity and said there were no drills or training exercises involving explosives taking place during the weekend. The blast came without warning and rattled windows up and down Bay Street in North Texas City. The Texas Office of the U.S. Geological Survey said there had been no recorded seismic events along the Gulf Coast this weekend. So what went boom? What could have shook homes from League City to Galveston’s beaches? They do know that they came from above. “I can tell you to the exact minute ... I heard them” - the first boom was at 4:14 p.m. Sunday. With back-to-back booms at 5:12 p.m. and 5:14 p.m. as well. The booms were described as short, low-pitched bursts lasting only a few seconds. Given those descriptions, the most plausible explanation would appear to be the sonic boom made by a jet when it crosses the sound barrier. With Ellington Field close by, it wouldn’t be the first time jet fighters would have been blamed for creating a stir. But all of the Air National Guard’s planes were on the ground Sunday. A spokeswoman for the Houston Airport System said checks into the mysterious booms came up empty. [Scores of people all over the Midwest and Upper Midwestern United States reported seeing flames and fiery explosions in the sky Sunday night - probably meteorites, possibly connected to the booms. See 2/6 for the meteorite article.]

1/25/07 -
MICHIGAN - residents in four counties said they heard loud booms and bangs Thursday night. Between 8:32p.m. and 11:30 p.m. residents called police, complaining about the "explosions." Many people were frightened by the noises, which some claimed sounded as if something had hit their homes. "One lady described it as sounding like someone was banging with both fists on her door." It is being explained as a possible weather phenomenon involving a drop in temperatures. Rapidly dropping temperatures could have created a stable layer in the atmosphere called a temperature inversion. That temperature inversion will trap sound waves close to the surface of Earth. Those sound waves, when dispersed, are forced to move horizontally from their source, instead of upward and horizontally.

MYSTERY BOOMS OR TREMORS OR METEORITE?-
1/24/07 -
VIRGINIA - Some Giles County residents are a little shaken after a tremor-like event Wednesday night, others say they heard a loud "thunder-like" sound. Virginia Tech researchers say they received several calls about a meteor sighting the same time of the tremors. The BIZARRE incident took place around 8pm. Researchers say the seismic station in Giles County did get a very short but intense seismic signal.

1/10/07 -
FLORIDA - newsrooms were flooded with calls from residents in Lee County who said they felt an earthquake just before 10am and again at 12:50pm on Wednesday the 10th. The USGS said there were no earthquakes that would have been felt in SW Florida."The doors were going boom, boom, boom. They actually shook and made noise." "It felt like a big explosion." Many people's dogs started barking. It may have been a sonic boom over the Gulf of Mexico.
--------------
12/8/06-
NEW JERSEY - Some people felt the ground shaking Thursday afternoon in South Jersey along the shore. Police took calls and emails from people in Mays Landing, Egg Harbor Township, Marmora, Somers Point, and Ocean City. All of them reported rumblings, tremors, and loud noises around 12:30 pm, then again at 1:15 pm. Most of the obvious potential causes don't check out. The only major road construction in the area is along the Route 52 causeway, and that's pretty far away for all those people to feel it. The Earthquake Center in Delaware reports absolutely no activity in the region. And the Department of Defense and New Jersey military investigated. Both say no local aircraft caused a sonic boom. But there is the possibility that an aircraft just passing through from a different area could have caused a loud rumbling feeling.

MISSISSIPPI - Many Jackson County residents felt the earth shake and rumble for several seconds Wednesday morning, creating a myriad of suspicions as to what had happened, but officials believe sonic booms from jets may have been the cause. About 10 a.m. two loud noises that shook houses, windows and the ground were reported throughout the county. Deputies were dispatched but no explosions were reported at any local industries, which prompted officials to then call local airports in Pascagoula, Gulfport and Mobile, as well as Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi and the National Weather Service. Local police departments, including Mobile, and other agencies received numerous calls from citizens about the noise. "It was pretty widespread." Last year, a sonic boom from jets from Pensacola Naval Air Station conducting high-altitude exercises over the Gulf of Mexico caused a similar quake that was felt in the county. That is what could have happened Wednesday. "That's the only thing we can attribute this one to. We can't find anything on the map." "There was a shake. It felt like an earthquake and then it make a deep bass-like rumbling sound." "We talked to a lot of people and they told us, 'We felt it, we heard it, but we don't know what it was." No official NAS Pensacola representative was available at press time to confirm whether exercises were taking place in the area.

12/5/06 -
MYSTERY TREMORS -
AUSTRALIA - Authorities are investigating the cause of a large tremor felt across a 70-kilometre stretch of the New South Wales mid-north coast. Emergency call centres were inundated with calls from residents who reported a tremor that shook windows and doors in Taree and surrounding areas. But the Government seismology body, Geo Science Australia, says it was not an earthquake, and the weather bureau says no unusual weather was recorded in the region.
AUSTRALIA - residents along the NSW mid-north coast began contacting police about 9.30pm (AEDT) and reported their homes shook in a tremor yesterday. "It was felt around Forster, Nabiac and then up as far as Taree, Wingham." A spokeswoman said F/A-18 Hornets, fighter jets, from two squadrons were on low-altitude flying missions Monday night. "We can confirm that there were Hornet F/A-18 aircraft flying over that area." But the spokeswoman would not say whether that was what residents felt and heard when they reported a suspected earthquake. Military aircraft from the Williamtown base fly most nights along the NSW mid-north coast and as far west as Coonabarabran and Mudgee. Weather could amplify the noise.

11/5/06 -
MYSTERY BOOMS BACK IN NORTH CAROLINA -
Unexplained Booms - Residents of Lake Renaissance Circle say they felt a series of jolts Thursday morning, November 2. They say it felt like an explosion followed by tiny booms. Some residents speculate the booms were caused by military planes flying overhead. Another possibility is the so-called "Seneca Guns," the mysterious sounds that seem to come from the ocean.
Possibly related to this story from Virginia? - Tremors from what was believed to be a minor earthquake Thursday in Southwest Virginia were more likely the result of a collapse at an abandoned mine. The event registered magnitude 4.3 and took place about eight miles north-northwest of Raven and about 10 miles northwest of Richlands in Tazewell County. It occurred at 12:53 p.m. Even a minor earthquake of that magnitude would typically trigger "a thousand calls" and normally would be felt as far away as Washington D.C. When the National Earthquake Information Center had only a couple of calls trickle in, seismologists took a closer look. They concluded it was far more likely to have been a mining event, which can sometimes be confused with a temblor. Experts say it may have been a blast, but more likely a ceiling collapse in one of the region's many mines. The state had no reports of the collapse of a working mine nor any reports of unusual mining activity in the area, however.

9/22/06 -
NEW ZEALAND - A loud bang accompanying an earthquake centred off Takou Bay on Sunday had some coastal residents checking the sky for a meteor. The 8:34am earthquake 20km east of Kaeo and 20km north of Kerikeri was centred at a depth of 5km and had a magnitude of 3.5 on the Richter scale. Some heard what sounded like a big explosion which shook a stone home at Te Ngaire, rattled windows and moved a picture on a wall. "At first I thought something had landed on the roof. Some people rushed out of their houses thinking it was something from space like they've been getting in the South Island." Along the road at Te Ngaire, "there was an awful boom and everything vibrated". It had sounded like a door slamming loudly or a gas cylinder exploding. "We thought maybe it was thunder, but it was too abrupt for that - more like a sonic boom." At Matauri Bay, a woman said the bang had sounded "like a quarry blast". The bang was also heard at Kerikeri, where among the suggestions for its cause was: "We thought it might be a P lab blowing up." Another "rattle" was heard much later on Sunday at both Matauri Bay and Te Ngaire, where a Mrs. Sale pointed out a unique anniversary. She said it was 25 years to the day that "a smoky thing" appeared in her home during a major storm. Scientists had investigated and attributed the phenomena to plasma or ionised gas formed by lightning.

NEW MYSTERY BOOMS -
8/13/06 -
VIRGINIA - Buildings shook and windows rattled with a series of loud booms heard up and down the northern beaches of the Outer Banks shortly before 11 a.m. Tuesday, August 8. "The only thing we can attribute it to is offshore jets. We called the Air Force, the Navy and the Coast Guard and they couldn't run it down." There was a flurry of calls from the public wanting to know what caused the concussive sounds that felt like an explosion could have gone off somewhere nearby. A military operating area - commonly called an MOA - is located about 25 miles offshore. Jets from the Air Force and Navy conduct practice bombing runs at the range, but none of those aircraft could have been a source. "I promise you, it was nothing we had. If it was a jet, it had to be out over the ocean over the MOA. There was nothing from Nags Head beach west that we were doing that would do anything like that." Pilots are not allowed to break the sound barrier over populated areas. "This is the first time it's happened in I don't know how long." There were no reports of any damage related to the incident.

MYSTERY BOOMS-
4/30/06 -
WASHINGTON - A series of explosions that rocked most of the Port Angeles area remains a mystery. Police dispatchers received calls from all around the area the night of the 27th about 11:30pm reporting the series of "booms". But police have been unable to uncover what may have caused the noises. Callers reported a series of five explosions that shook their houses. One caller reported her glass sliding door shattered. No earthquake activity was reported that night in the Port Angeles area.

CALIFORNIA - the source of a mysterious disturbance that rattled San Diego County on the morning of April 4, shaking windows, doors and bookcases from the coast to the mountains was a sound wave that started over the ocean roughly 120 miles off the San Diego coast and petered out over the Imperial County desert. That spot is in the general vicinity of Warning Area 291, a huge swath of ocean used for military training exercises. Researchers have charted dozens of similar, if less dramatic, incidents that seem to have originated in the same general area of the ocean. They aren't sure what caused any of them, whether the April 4 disturbance was natural or made by humans. “But it was certainly a big disturbance in the atmosphere.” There was no Navy or Marine Corps flight activity in Warning Area 291 on that day that would have caused a sonic boom or a countywide tremor. The area covers 1 million square miles and is off-limits to civilian planes and ships. “We don't know at this time where this earthquakelike sensation came from.” The disturbance was the result of a low-frequency wave that traveled through the air at the speed of sound as it moved from the ocean to the desert. It was picked up by more than two dozen seismometers in San Diego and eastern Riverside counties. The wave was felt on San Nicolas Island, northwest of San Clemente Island, at 8:40 a.m. It hit Solana Beach at 8:46 a.m., the western edge of the Cleveland National Forest at 8:47 and the eastern side of the Salton Sea at 8:53 a.m. From there, it appears to have dissipated. The wave moved at 320 meters per second, roughly the speed that sound travels through the air. Its velocity was too slow to be that of an earthquake. The only explanation is that the wave was traveling through the atmosphere, not through the ground. At each location, the wave could be felt for roughly 10 seconds. Several months before the April 4 incident, a team had begun studying other nonquake disturbances that were registering on San Diego County seismometers, including 76 that apparently originated in that same general area of the ocean in 2003. They figured that some of those disturbances surely must have come from offshore military exercises. The researchers haven't been able to determine whether the April 4 wave was more powerful than the earlier ones or whether it simply felt that way because of atmospheric conditions. “I'm told that a sonic boom would not cover that distance at all." Authorities have said a meteor probably wasn't the cause because it would have been noticed by the scientific community. The American Meteor Society reported no fireball sightings over Southern California on that day.

MYSTERY BOOM LOCATION PINPOINTED -
4/28/06 -
CALIFORNIA - Scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography believe they have located the mysterious boom heard and felt in San Diego earlier this month. On the morning of April 4, a loud boom rattled windows and doors in many parts of the county. A team of Scripps scientists said the boom was the result of a sound wave that originated over the ocean about 120 miles west of San Diego. The spot is near an area used by the Navy for military training exercises. The Scripps scientists said that they didn't know if the sonic boom was caused by human activity or a natural phenomena like a meteor exploding in the atmosphere. Military officials said that there was no Navy or Marine Corps fight activity in the training area on April 4. [ SITE NOTE - So we still don't know WHAT caused the boom, only where it seems to have originated from.]

MYSTERIOUS BOOMS CONTINUE TO BE HEARD -
4/24/06 -
CALIFORNIA - At various spots throughout San Diego County, people reported a rumbling sound or a booming noise shortly before 9 a.m. Tuesday, April 4, and so far no one has come forward with an explanation. Whatever it was, it caused a woman's bed to shake in Lakeside. It created waves in a backyard pool in Carmel Valley. It set off car alarms in Kearny Mesa and rattled windows from Mission Beach to Poway to Vista. “My garage door is double steel and it weighs about 500 lbs. It was rattling back and forth like a leaf in the wind for about 3 or 4 seconds.” Scientists insist it wasn't an earthquake. The Federal Aviation Administration has no record of any planes producing a sonic boom by breaking the sound barrier. Camp Pendleton officials say no activities on the Marine base could have created such a disturbance. There were no large explosions in San Diego County that day, and no meteor fireballs were reported in the sky that morning. What was it, then? Maybe it was the same thing that caused a strange disturbance in Mississippi on April 7, when the locals heard a loud boom that rattled windows all over Jackson County, throwing emergency workers “into a tizzy.” Authorities in that state still don't have a clue as to the cause. Nor, to this day, can anyone explain what was behind similar episodes in Maine two months ago, or Alabama three months ago, or North Carolina four months ago. In each of those cases – as well as in other incidents around the nation over the years – residents reported hearing windows rattle and feeling floors shake even though no earthquake was detected. [Mobile, Alabama on Jan. 19, 2006: Wilmington, N.C., on Dec. 20, 2005; Winston-Salem, N.C., on March 5, 2005; Charleston, S.C., on Aug. 1, 2003; and Pensacola, Fla., on Jan. 13, 2003. ]

THE MYSTERIOUS BOOMS ARE BACK -
4/5 -
This time they're in California - San Diegans are wondering what's behind a series of mysterious booms heard across the county Tuesday morning. The booms were heard at around 8:45 a.m. and rattled residents, causing a flood of calls to sheriff's dispatchers. No measurable seismic activity was recorded in San Diego County Tuesday morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Local military officials had no reports of a sonic boom happening. Marines at Camp Pendleton conducted mortar training Tuesday morning, but officials say they were unaware if the noise was a result.

MYSTERIOUS BOOM -
3/24/06 -
CANADA - British Columbia - Possibly a meteorite - A loud explosion in Burnaby late Wednesday night, March 22, has authorities scratching their heads. About 11:05 the blast rattled windows and awakened neighbours near the Chaffey Burke Elementary School on Abbey Avenue. Police responded with officers and a dog but came up empty handed. All they could find was a small hole in the ground. No damage has been reported and there were no injuries.

3/17/06 -
MYSTERY BOOMS STILL A MYSTERY -
OREGON - The Portland Air National Guard says they do not believe F-15 fighters are to blame for loud booms heard throughout the area on Saturday. The Air National Guard checked Portland's flight track and determined jets were conducting training flights over the Northwest when a series of strange rumbling noises hit. However, the two jets that broke the sound barrier were over the ocean and pointing west. That sonic boom would not have traveled more than 20 miles. "If it was us, we'll confess and make sure we look at procedures and make sure it doesn't happen again." Many people on the base heard the noise as well, but say it was much different than a sonic boom. The Air National Guard will now check Seattle's flight track to see if any other jets may have been flying at the time.

MORE MYSTERY BOOMS -
OREGON - People from the coast all the way to the mountains heard mysterious rumbles Saturday night, so what on earth were they? No, it was not an earthquake from Mount St. Helens and it was not thunder and lightning. It seems everyone had their idea what the noises were and nearly everyone had a different opinion about how long it lasted. A meteor was the best guess from the National Weather Service, but that is unconfirmed. The 911 dispatch center told KATU News they heard it was military jets causing sonic booms. Monday morning, KATU contacted McChord Air Force Base to find out if they were conducting some kind of exercise over the metro area. They were still waiting to hear back from them.
UPDATE - The source of those mysterious rumblings over the weekend that caught the attention of so many continues to be a mystery. The focus is on F-15s at the Portland Air Base, which KATU News was originally told were on the ground, but later learned were not. It turns out a group of F-15s were launched from the Portland International Airport Saturday night as part of three days of intensive training. Within an hour of their departure, people started hearing things and feeling some rumblings. That is when the 911 calls began. Even the commander of the F-15 squadron heard the strange noise from his home in Lake Oswego. The logical explanation seemed to be that the fighter jets set off a sonic boom, but the Air National Guard says it does not make sense that so many people, from Longview to the Oregon coast, would hear the same sonic booms at the same time. A much smaller range of 10 to 20 miles is more likely. With so many wondering what happened, the Air National Guard is continuing its investigation. That leaves others to speculate about meteors and to do comparisons with a similar unexplained phenomenon in FLORIDA last year and in MAINE just last month. Others speculate it is a secret government plane, code-named Aurora, which supposedly flies out of Area 51 in Nevada. For years, unusually intense sonic booms rocked LOS ANGELES, with many believing it was Aurora passing by at four times the speed of sound. The Air National Guard says they plan to interview the pilots individually on Wednesday, which may lead to some kind of answer. Each time an F-15 pilot causes a sonic boom over populated areas, they are required to write a log of the event. [SITE NOTE - If you are wondering why I put news of these mystery booms on the page, it is because mystery booms deep in the plate boundary were reported in Indonesia in the months before the December 2004 quake and tsunami. The booms may not be related to quakes, but just in case they are, it seems prudent to keep note of where they are occurring.]

MORE MYSTERY BOOMS -
2/26/06 -
MAINE - People in Somerset County are seeking answers after feeling earthquake-like tremors this week. The Somerset County Communications Center got calls Thursday morning from at least a dozen residents who reported tremors in a 15-mile radius in Anson, Madison, Skowhegan and Norridgewock. But state officials said there weren't any earthquakes that were documented by the New England Seismic Network. People in Solon last week reported hearing an unexplained loud explosion that shook homes. "I'd like them to re-look at what they may have. This is the second occurrence in less than a week of such magnitude." Thursday's event sounded and felt like a Dumpster had fallen off a truck or a truck had hit the town office building, but that nothing could be found when employees went outside to see what happened. More than a mile away, another person felt the shaking in his office. But he, too, couldn't find the cause. "It felt like somebody with a delivery type of vehicle had backed into our building." Six miles away in Anson, the boom and shaking were so strong that an off-duty dispatcher called the county's dispatch center. He thought maybe his chimney collapsed or his furnace exploded, but he couldn't determine the cause either.
Reports continued to pour in Friday from residents who said they experienced what appeared to be earthquake tremors at about 10 a.m. Thursday morning. "The number and validity of reports received Thursday and Friday - in addition to similar reports last Friday in Solon - indicate Thursday's event was significant and not just a sonic boom."

1/6/2006 -
SCOTLAND - The coast of Aberdeenshire was rocked by a mystery huge bang on the sixth, shaking windows. There were no aircraft or blasts and the cause of the noise left experts baffled.

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12/23/05 -
MORE BOOMS -
NORTH CAROLINA - Carolina Beach authorities were investigating reports of three loud booms in the area Tuesday. About 4:20 p.m., numerous residents heard a loud boom and some felt the building they were in shake. Officials were unaware of what may have caused the booms, but were looking at causes ranging from a plane flying too low to the ground to an earthquake. The U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Center said it had no record of an earthquake along the North Carolina coast and local police said that there were no scheduled activities in the area that would have caused the booms or the buildings to shake.
Thousands of people reported hearing a series of explosive "booms" all across New Hanover County and in some sections of Brunswick County late Tuesday afternoon. Thoughts of the nuclear power plant exploding, an earthquake or a terrorist strike are just some of the theories that were tossed around after hearing the sounds. Most of the information is pointing towards some type of military exercise. "It was a series of kabooms. It was just like an explosion." "I sort of jerked and almost lost my balance, and I noticed it was lasting longer that the ones we had heard in the past." The weather service reported seeing some military activity about 30 miles off shore at about 4:00 p.m. Tuesday and one viewer in Wrightsville Beach said she saw about nine military jets flying over head, but the Military is not confirming or denying any reports. The continental shelf shifting - an unstable piece of land off shore - is another theory, but geologists say it's very unusual for loud explosive noises to go along with that or an earthquake for that matter.

MYSTERIOUS BOOMS AGAIN -
11/23/05 -
ISRAEL - Just three weeks after dozens of residents from across Israel reported unusually loud “booms” and tremors throughout the night, residents again reported hearing loud boom-like sounds in different parts of the country Tuesday, mainly in coastal regions, claiming their homes shook as a result. Police officials confirmed people reported they heard “explosions,” but added that the source remains unknown. No unusual military activity that may have caused the “explosions” was detected, and the Seismology Institute said no earthquakes were recorded. Most of those who reported of the blasts reside in the Sharon region, in central Israel; they said the shockwaves came from the direction of the sea. Last time the Air Force said, “this is an unusual phenomenon in which cold and warm layers are alternately formed in the air, and the sound waves move like a ping pong ball between the ground and layers."

10/29/05 -
MYSTERIOUS BOOMS ARE BACK, THIS TIME IN ISRAEL - Dozens of residents from across Israel heard unusually loud “explosions” and tremors throughout the night, but attempts to shed light on the source of the blasts has been met with uncertainty. At least one possibility has been discounted, with the country’s seismological institute saying no earthquake occurred. Police officials estimated the loud sounds were a result of sonic booms created by IDF fighter jets on their way to attacking Gaza, but the army insisted there was no unusual Air Force activity across the country overnight. Many residents said the explosions came from the direction of the sea. “Police personnel who heard the blasts themselves said they sounded like sonic booms. We still don’t know what caused the explosions. We had similar reports during the week.” Police in Haifa also received calls regarding a possible earthquake, but no damages were reported. The nighttime explosions have apparently become a routine occurrence throughout the Sharon region, north of Tel Aviv. In recent nights there have been other reports about blasts heard in the town of Herzliya, but the source of them is unclear. “It was a scary blast. The windows shook and we felt the entire house shake. The first thing that came to mind was a terror attack…we weren’t able to figure out what caused the first blast, and minutes later a second blast followed.” The blast was so powerful it knocked one door out. The owner said he thought an earthquake was behind the unusual occurrence. “It wasn’t like an explosion, but rather, the entire building shook.”

10/19/05 -
INDIANA - More Fort Wayne residents have reported hearing more of those mysterious earth-shaking booms. After four months of silence, residents of a neighborhood on the city's northeast side say they heard two of the booms within hours of each other Monday. The booms, which rattle homes, have been heard primarily on the northeast side over the last year. Police investigations have not found an exact cause for the huge booms.

[Earlier Florida reported mystery booms, but I do not have the exact date.]

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12/17/1997 -
MYSTERY BOOM STARTLES PEOPLE IN THE OZARKS - On Wednesday afternoon, December 17, 1997, a huge aerial explosion jolted the town of Rogersville, Missouri. According to news reports on KYTV (Cable Channel 12 in Florida--J.T.), the blast "rattled windows and blew open storm doors" in the small community on Missouri Highway 60 approximately 13 miles (21 kilometers) east of Springfield. According to KYTV, a U.S. Air Force spokesman denied that the mysterious blast was a sonic boom caused by low-flying supersonic jet interceptors. The cause of the "sky boom" is unknown.

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