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Mystery Booms From The Sky (Skyquakes)

Not that this has stopped the booming:

Cause of loud booms around Port Angeles remains mystery

2006-04-30
by ANDREW BINION

PORT ANGELES -- Was it a bird, or a plane? Officials don't know the cause of a mysterious boom that rattled windows late Thursday night.

The Federal Aviation Administration says it has no record of noises during the period the explosions were reported in Port Angeles.

The Coast Guard and Whidbey Island Naval Air Station say their aircraft couldn't cause a sonic boom.

And no earthquakes were reported.

PenCom dispatchers took three calls on the booms at about 11:30 p.m. on Thursday.

One call came from the 2300 block of Lower Elwha Road, another came from the 1000 block of East Second Street and the third from West 14th Street and South Cherry Street.

Callers reported a series of booms.

Media contacted

Similar reports were made by callers to the Peninsula Daily News and other media organizations in Port Angeles.

Radio station KONP reported on its Web site that one caller said her sliding glass door was shattered, but there was no independent confirmation.

From shortly after 9 p.m. until midnight, the FAA -- the federal agency that regulates U.S. airspace -- says it was a quiet night.

``We have nothing annotated whatsoever about noises or booms or anything,'' said Karen Byrd, regional operations officer based in Renton.

No earthquakes of any size were reported on the Olympic Peninsula on Thursday night, according to the Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network.

Additionally, meteorologists did not observe anything Thursday night that would raise their eyebrows.

``Nothing unusual weather-wise,'' said Carl Cerniglia of the National Weather Service in Seattle.

www.peninsuladailynews.com/sited/story/html/236098
 
In support of the sky objects theory, there is a comet due this month , soon actually,and it will pass very close (in astronomical terms) to the earth. The last time it passed it was close as well, and broke into some small fragments and a large fragment.
These smaller fragments could be a danger since they can be pulled from there orbital path more easily and get sucked into the atmosphere.
I believe it was due to pass on the 12th of this month IIANM.
Is it TEOTWAWKI ?
I feel fine.
 
To be honest, I don't remember any items about the mystery thuds before, but it's solved now..

Mystery of thuds explained
Jul 19 2006
SOURCE: Midweek Advertiser

MYSTERY thuds heard in parts of West Lancashire are being caused by industrial hammers at sea, it has emerged.

The rhythmic thumps, described as sounding like toll of a distant bell, are coming from the Burbo Bank Offshore Wind Farm, which is under construction about four miles off the coast of Formby.

Pile drivers are working round-the-clock to ram 170-foot long steel poles 40m into the seabed. Each rod is 4.5m wide.

So far, 17 of the 25 foundations have been installed.

The noise has been heard as far inland as Holborn Hill.

A spokesman for the developers, SeaScape Energy Ltd, said: "Operations to install the foundations are taking place around the clock under guidelines from the Department of Trade and Industry.

"Under guidelines, noise levels cannot exceed 45 decibels in the daytime or 40 decibels overnight."

For more information, visit www.elsam.com
 
Isostatic Reactions

Some "booms" such as the famous "Moodus Noises" of New England seem to be isostatic reactions.

During the most recent Ice Ages (only an eyeblink ago in geological time) the tremendous weight of the glacial ice pack so severely depressed the landscape that it is STILL popping back up into its pre-Ice Ages shape!
 
Formby in West Lancashire? Have we gone through a time slip? I always thought it was Merseyside myself.
 
rjmrjmrjm said:
Formby in West Lancashire? Have we gone through a time slip? I always thought it was Merseyside myself.

Formby is still in Sefton, the sound carried into West Lancashire.
 
FWIW, and off-topic (sorry!), Merseyside isn't a real county anyway. It was an administrative county until 1986 apparently, but was never an actual county. I still use Lancashire on my address anyway :)
 
Further to my note on the quoted piece

I have now heard the "booms" and quite curious they are too; a low, deep, periodic rumble like a heartbeat.

Frequency seemed to be something like once every other second or so. (so, maybe 0.5Hz?)
 
Police Probe Mystery Boom.

From AOL news,
http://news.aol.co.uk/police-probe-mystery-boom/article/20061026154809990019

Police probe mystery boom

A mystery boom which shook an area is being investigated by the police.

The ear-splitting noise happened on the Devon and Cornwall border between Bude and Holsworthy around noon, according to local people.

Bude householder Anne Kyle said that after the "frightening'' noise, a hairline crack in a wall in her home had widened.

Mechanic Barry Burrow said his workshop vibrated and he had a headache for two hours afterwards.

No one was injured by the big bang, which is being investigated by Devon and Cornwall police.

"One theory being considered is perhaps a military aircraft has broken the sound barrier a little too close to the land and that has caused this sonic boom and this, in turn, caused some light damage around the north Cornwall area,'' a police spokesman told the BBC.

Western Power Distribution said engineers had completed checks and found no faults with its systems.

The Ministry of Defence and the RAF said there were no records of their aircraft flying over the area.

The Civil Aviation Authority said it was also unaware of the cause.

The British Geological Survey had no signals from their instruments in the area.
 
the beeb version of events

Mystery 'explosion' damages homes

The bang was believed to have been a sonic boom
Reports of a loud explosion on the north Cornwall and Devon border are being investigated.

A number of residents reported hearing a loud bang between 1130 and 1200 BST around the Bude and Holsworthy area. Others said their homes were damaged.

Western Power and the British Geological Survey have carried out checks in the area.

Pc Baxter Proven of Devon and Cornwall Police said an investigation was under way into the cause.

He said: "One theory being considering is perhaps a military aircraft has broken the sound barrier a little too close to the land and that has caused this sonic boom and this, in turn, caused some light damage around the north Cornwall area."

'Physically shook'

One resident in Bude said a crack in her kitchen had widened as a result, and others reported experiencing their properties "shaking".

A BBC Radio Cornwall listener said: "The stables physically shook. It sounded like Concorde used to sound when it broke the sonic barrier. But much louder. It went 'boom, boom'."

A crack that was left at one home
Experts ruled out the possibility of an earth tremor

Western Power Distribution said engineers had completed checks and found no faults with its systems.

The Ministry of Defence and the RAF said there were no records of their aircraft flying over the area.

The Civil Aviation Authority said it was also unaware of the cause.

David Galloway from the British Geological Survey said the organisation checked its readings for the area after receiving several phone calls about the bang.

He said: "We've not got any signals at all from any instruments, and in fact we have instruments nearby at Hartland Point."

He added it was possible that it might have been a sonic boom, but although the equipment was geared towards detecting ground movement, it would sometimes pick up such disturbances as well.

He said: "Typically we'd register any ground movement but we have been known to have signals of a sonic nature to register."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/6088008.stm
 
more:

MYSTERY 'EXPLOSION IN SKY' HEARD FOR MILES
MILES DAVIS

11:00 - 27 October 2006
Mystery last night surrounded the source of what people described as an "explosion" in the sky above the Westcountry.

Houses shook and doors and windows rattled as a large bang was heard and felt in North Cornwall and Devon.

Emergency services were on standby as calls came in to the police of an explosion, a tremor, or a loud bang, depending on the caller.

The local MP has called for a full investigation into the incident which is thought to have caused damage to homes.

The Civil Aviation Authority last night said the source of the bang was a military jet, but all of the Westcountry's air bases insisted it was not their aircraft.

The reports of the loud noise came from an area formed by a triangle between Bude on the North Cornish coast, Holsworthy in Devon and Launceston in Cornwall, starting at 11.48am yesterday.

Devon and Cornwall Police immediately contacted utility companies, the civil and military aviation authorities and geological surveyors - but nobody could offer an explanation for the explosion.

Karen Dunk, manager of the Widemouth Manor Hotel in Widemouth Bay, near Bude, was standing near windows with her 12-year-old daughter when she heard the bang.

She said: "It sounded really bad. There was this huge bang and everything shook. My husband was outside putting up a bouncy castle and he started to run for cover. It's very weird - such a big bang and no one can explain it."

Flt Lt Dave Webster from RAF St Mawgan near Newquay said: "Having checked with traffic control at St Mawgan and in London, there have been no reports of a sonic boom from any aircraft in the area." North Cornwall MP Dan Rogerson said that a full investigation of the causes would be necessary.

Mr Rogerson added: "This is clearly of very serious concern to my constituents in Bude, and to people all over Devon and Cornwall. We're not yet sure of the cause of this startling event but those whose homes have been damaged will be especially keen to find out.

"I'll be pressing the MoD for answers - and, if necessary, action."

Later in the day, police liaised with the Civil Aviation Authority, which discovered that the boom was caused by a jet fighter.

Nobody from the MoD was available to comment on the matter yesterday.

As the plane raced overhead, it broke the sound barrier and created a sonic boom - the audible part of a shockwave which can exceed 200 decibels.

However, Vic Thurston, landlord of the Green Inn at Mary St Weeks, is convinced it was more than a sonic boom. He said: "It sounded like a bomb going off - it rattled all the windows and doors here. No way was that a sonic boom."

Source

[Emp edit: Fixing big link]
 
IIRC, there were reports of similar booms further to the east (over Somerset) back in the early 1990s.
 
Meteor blamed for sonic boom in Cornwall


Steven Morris
Monday October 30, 2006
The Guardian

At first residents thought it was an earthquake, then a military plane breaking the sound barrier. But last week's sonic boom in Cornwall has now been blamed on a meteor. Hundreds of people phoned the emergency services after hearing two loud explosions between Bude and Holsworthy. But yesterday David Carcary from the West Cornwall Astronomical Society said a meteor could have caused the bang before burning up as it entered the earth's atmosphere."I'm fairly convinced it was a meteor, but the only way to prove it would be to have an audio recording of the boom," he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story ... 18,00.html

interesting article on sonic booms on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_boom
 
I live fairly near Armley but I didn't hear these, so I don't know how load they were, but anyway, they've been explained - sort of. I notice they didn't go into much detail of what the explosions actually were, or why they needed them.

Police explain baffling blasts
A series of "bomb-like" explosions which shook part of Leeds throughout Monday afternoon were part of a police training exercise, it has been confirmed.
Staff on industrial estates in the Armley area were left baffled after buildings shook due to the force of the blasts, which started at 2.30pm.
Some even evacuated the buildings.
But West Yorkshire Police confirmed the explosions were part of a training exercise at an undisclosed location for officers to polish their skills in entering properties.
They said residents had been made aware of the exercise.
But nearby office staff and workers said they hadn't a clue what was going on.
Ali Kart, who owns Kartex International, on Albion Park, Armley, said: "I have just heard four explosions in half an hour. They sound like a bomb. They shook the whole warehouse.
"We are on a small industrial estate and we all came out and checked, but we couldn't see anything."
One office worker from French PR Ltd, on Castleton Mill, Castleton Close, said: "There was what sounded like an explosion outside the building. The whole building shook.
"We did go outside, but there was no sign of anything major so we just came back in."
A police spokeswoman said they had not received any calls from the public about the blasts.
"It's a multi-agency training exercise. It's about entering properties and has been running throughout most of the day."
The spokeswoman added it was not a terrorism training exercise.
"It's something we do regularly to make sure officers' skills are as they should be."
23 January 2007

source
 
An exploding UFO? Chemtrail combustion?

Police examine Loch Lomond forest blast 'terror links'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-g ... t-11794376

Police at the scene Officers have sealed off the area where the explosion took place

Police are continuing to investigate possible terrorist activity after an explosion in a Scottish woodland.

Anti-terrorism officers and bomb disposal units have sealed off an area in Garadhban Forest, near Gartocharn, at the south of Loch Lomond.

Officers were called to reports of an explosion on Wednesday and discovered a blast zone in an area of trees.

There are reports other devices may have been found and that MI5 are involved in the investigation.

Strathclyde Police are investigating damage to trees in the woodland area about 300 to 400 yards from Ross Priory, a secluded 19th Century building to the south east of the loch.
Continue reading the main story
Analysis
James Cook Scotland Correspondent, BBC News

The area is being guarded by police in fluorescent jackets and the narrow lanes which wind through a series of villages are busy with police cars, vans and motorbikes.

Shop and hotel owners in at least one village were contacted by police who urgently wanted to view their CCTV footage.

Specialist officers from the Metropolitan Police and explosives experts have been drafted in to help Strathclyde Police and the man in charge of the operation has refused to rule out the involvement of terrorism.

They are being assisted by a small team of counter-terrorism officers in an attempt to establish the full circumstances surrounding the incident.

The Northern Diving Group - the Royal Navy's equivalent of the bomb disposal squad - was also called to the scene on Thursday.

Van loads of police officers have been coming and going from the scene and several boxes marked evidence were removed on Friday morning.

A Metropolitan Police helicopter was also flying over the area.

Ch Supt Calum Murray, of Strathclyde Police, said: "As you would expect, when we are dealing with a situation where we suspect that explosives may be involved, it is our immediate priority to assess the situation and to call on expertise where we think it is appropriate.

"By its very nature, this type of assessment and investigation is complex and does take time. I can confirm that we are currently being assisted by agencies from across the UK.

"I would stress that the site is secure and that there is no risk to public safety."

Ch Supt Murray also said the damage in the woodland was "not an expansive area".

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Ch Supt Calum Murray said investigations were at an early stage

Officers are also collecting CCTV footage from local businesses within the general area of the explosion.

Hotel manager Stuart King told the BBC: "I got a phone call from CID asking if I could meet them here as a matter of urgency and that they wanted to access our CCTV system."

Mr King said the officers gave him no details about why they were scrutinising the footage.

He added: "We heard rumours that there had been an explosion and then saw it on the news website."

A Scottish government spokeswoman said: "Strathclyde Police are currently investigating this incident and are keeping ministers informed of their progress - they have reassured us that there is no threat to public safety."
 
Skeptoid - a fun skeptic site - has it's own boom story:
The Bell Island Boom
Was the cause of this shattering boom in Newfoundland natural, or a test of a superweapon?

http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4190
 
Niall114 said:
To be honest, I don't remember any items about the mystery thuds before, but it's solved now..

Mystery of thuds explained
Jul 19 2006
SOURCE: Midweek Advertiser

MYSTERY thuds heard in parts of West Lancashire are being caused by industrial hammers at sea, it has emerged.

The rhythmic thumps, described as sounding like toll of a distant bell, are coming from the Burbo Bank Offshore Wind Farm, which is under construction about four miles off the coast of Formby.

Pile drivers are working round-the-clock to ram 170-foot long steel poles 40m into the seabed. Each rod is 4.5m wide.

So far, 17 of the 25 foundations have been installed.

The noise has been heard as far inland as Holborn Hill.

A spokesman for the developers, SeaScape Energy Ltd, said: "Operations to install the foundations are taking place around the clock under guidelines from the Department of Trade and Industry.

"Under guidelines, noise levels cannot exceed 45 decibels in the daytime or 40 decibels overnight."

For more information, visit www.elsam.com

Now that makes a lot of sense! In Sept 2009 I stopped on a campsite in Spain near Tarragona. As dusk began to fall, I could hear what I thought was a kick drum being soundchecked through a massive PA system. I own a PA company, so thinking there was a music festival on nearby, it didn't concern me too much, other than the fact it was going on....and on....., till way after midnight. Obviously not a band, just the same monotonous thud-thud. I asked fellow campers next morning but no-one was even aware there had been a noise!
Moving on, I went further down the coast, stopped for lunch on the beach and could hear it again, thud thud thud, pretty much all afternoon. I am convinced it was coming from out at sea.
This pile-driver theory sounds very feasible as to the cuse of the booms I was hearing, they are well into their wind farms out in Europe.
 
Sonic boom shakes north east - eyewitness account
I was in Berwick-on-Tweed yesterday when a mysterious rumble shook the town for a few seconds.

It's not often that journalists are at the scene of a story when it actually happens, usually we are following up the story at a later point.
But yesterday by sheer coincidence, I happened to be in the border town of Berwick-on-Tweed at approximately 3.15pm.
You might wonder why this information is significant.

Something strange happened. I was with a photographer colleague in a Morrisons supermarket grabbing a quick hot drink in the restaurant while out on another story. The restaurant was bustling with customers and the supermarket was also very busy.
Suddenly, a loud booming noise rumbled across the roof of the building. We felt like were in the middle of an earthquake or some kind of unusual seismic event.
It felt similar to the sonic boom you experience when RAF fighter jets go past on exercise - but we were not aware of any aircraft overhead at the time.

The roof began to shake violently and it looked as if it was sagging and about to fall in at one point, as it shook. Within seconds, the boom reached a crescendo as we all looked up, astonished.
Then it stopped. "What on earth was that?" we said to each other, not quite believing what had happened. The other people seemed equally baffled, staring at the roof in bemused wonderment.

We tried to find out what was going on, but no-one seemed to know. "Did you hear that?", people were saying. Two managers were outside, looking bewildered as they checked for damage on the roof. We asked them what had happened. "We have no idea," they said and went back into the store.
There was no obvious damage anywhere. No cracks in the ground and the sound seemed to be coming from above, not deep beneath the ground.

The British Geological Survey said it was likely to have been a "sonic" event caused by fast planes flying in the area. People living in Northumberland and Tyneside contacted police after buildings shook and a loud rumbling noise was heard.
However, there were no reports of any injuries or damage.

The BGS said it had received calls from people in Northumberland and Tyne and Wear, with reports including "I heard a low frequency rumble", that the "whole house shook" or the caller "heard a very loud boom".
It said the survey has received information from the media, the police and several residents in towns and villages in Northumberland and Tyne & Wear, who reported that they felt an event sometime around 3.15pm.
Reports described "the front door shook and the letterbox flapped", "felt a very heavy rumble as if a heavy lorry had passed" and "vibration lasted for around 5 seconds with a rumbling noise".

"Data from the BGS seismic networks in the region were examined and signals consistent with a possible sonic origin were recorded at around 3.13/3.14pm on several stations.The observations received are similar to those which have been received previously for sonic boom," it said.
"RAF Kinloss were contacted and have advised that there were two military jets on exercise in the area at the time."

A spokesman said: "Data from the BGS seismic networks in the region were examined and a signal consistent with a possible sonic origin was recorded at approximately 15.13.
"The reports received are also consistent with historical observations received for previous events with a sonic origin."

The Vicar of Berwick, Canon Alan Hughes, told the Berwick Advertiser: "I was standing outside the vicarage and the next thing I knew people were piling out of the Church of Scotland and doors were rattling and people were coming out their houses and offices. It shook me to the core."

Eyewitnesses who contacted the Berwick Advertiser and Berwickshire News offices reported that it had been felt in nearby villages on both sides of the border.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northe ... north-east
 
I wasn't aware that sonic booms could last for five seconds. :?: :!:
 
IIRC, the effect of the sound barrier being broken lasts as long as the object is travelling at that speed.

That said, this doesn't really seem to be consistent with a sonic boom - unless various witnesses are exaggerting the effects. This is what the British Geological Survey says about the event:

On the afternoon of 12 January 2012, from around 15:20 UTC, the BGS began to receive information from the media, the police and many residents in predominantly coastal towns and villages in the southern Scottish Borders, Northumberland and Tyne & Wear, who reported that they felt what many had thought to have been an earthquake at sometime around 15:15 UTC.

Data from the BGS seismic networks in the region were examined and signals consistent with a possible sonic origin were recorded at around 15:13/15:14 UTC on several stations. The observations received from the pubic are similar to those which have been received previously for sonic booms. The RAF were contacted and advised that there were two military jets on exercise in the area at the time. Several members of the public have also reported seeing two military planes flying in the area at the time of the occurrence. RAF Boulmer have since confirmed that a single Tornado GR4 fighter aircraft had completed a pre-planned supersonic sortie to RAF Marham in Norfolk.

The extent of the effects of the sonic boom were felt over a distance of approximately 115 km, stretching from Eyemouth, Scottish Borders, to just north of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear. The locations furthest inland from where reports were received were Duns, Wooler and Bedlington. Reports described "roof rattled, floor bounced", "the whole house shook violently for a couple of seconds", "very heavy rumble, as if an absolutely massive lorry had passed right next to me", "the front door shook and the letterbox flapped", "door rattled on its hinges and floorboards flexed causing my chair to move whilst I was in it " and "vibration lasted for around 5 seconds with a rumbling noise".

A sonic boom is the sound associated with the shock waves created when an object, such as an aircraft, breaks the sound barrier. An aircraft travelling slower than the speed of sound (~760 mph) creates a series of audible pressure waves that spread out in front and behind it. These waves travel at the speed of sound. As the speed of the aircraft increases these waves get closer together and at the speed of sound they merge into a single shock wave that starts at the nose and ends at the tail of the aircraft.

The boom is created by the sudden increase in pressure at the nose and also as the pressure returns to normal at the tail as the aircraft passes. This can lead to a distinctive "double boom". The shock wave or boom continues to be generated for as long as the aircraft is supersonic, which is why they are typically observed along a long strip along the flight path of the aircraft.


BGS Source

Of Fortean note is that the locales are coastal, which may mean that something like a 'mistpouffer' or 'barisal gun' is to blame...
 
Boom in Grimsby as well.

RAF: Big bang in Grimsby wasn't us
Friday, January 20, 2012Grimsby TelegraphFollow
THE Royal Air Force has said none of its planes were responsible for what many have called a "sonic boom" over Grimsby.

As reported, the Grimsby Telegraph received many calls from residents who had heard what sounded like a large explosion at about 7pm on Wednesday.

http://www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk/RAF-Big- ... story.html
 
I've heard booms like this myself - I thought there was an explanation, something like locally heated masses of air rising rapidly?

Part of the problem is you can't tell if they are really loud and a long way away (which is what they sound like, but probably aren't since people out of the immediate locality don't notice them) or not-very-loud and very close.
 
Wis. town longs for relief from mysterious booms

CLINTONVILLE, Wis. — Sleepless families in a small Wisconsin town longed for quiet Wednesday after mysterious booming noises over the past few nights roused them from bed and sent residents into the street — sometimes still in pajamas.

The strange disturbance sounds like distant thunder, fireworks or someone slamming a heavy door. At first, many people were amused or merely curious. But after three restless nights, aggravation is mounting. And some folks are considering leaving town until investigators determine the source of the racket.

"My husband thought it was cool, but I don't think so. This is not a joke," said Jolene Van Beek, who awoke early Sunday to a loud boom that shook her house. "I don't know what it is, but I just want it to stop."

The booming in Clintonville continued Monday and Tuesday nights and into Wednesday morning, eventually prompting Van Beek to take her three sons to her father's home, 10 minutes away, so they could get some uninterrupted sleep.

There have been no reports of injury, despite some residents saying they could feel the ground roll beneath their feet.

City officials say they have investigated every possible human cause. They checked water, sewer and gas lines, contacted the military about any exercises in the area, reviewed permits for mining explosives and inspected a dam next to city hall. They even tested methane levels at the landfill in case the gas was spontaneously exploding.

"People in the area are certainly frustrated," City Administrator Lisa Kuss said.

The city is also investigating geological causes. Officials plan to bring in vibration-detection devices to try to determine the epicenter of any underground activity.

Authorities set up audio and video equipment overnight but didn't capture any evidence of shaking or booming despite at least one loud noise about 5 a.m. Wednesday, Kuss said.

About 300 people attended a public meeting Wednesday night in a local high school auditorium to get an update on the situation. Kuss assured residents that officials are doing everything they can to determine the source of the booming.

Sharon Binger said the disturbance has left cracks in her basement walls and floor, and that they're getting worse. She said her insurance company won't pay for the damage until she knows what caused it.

"This is an issue," she said, demanding answers from officials at the meeting. "There is something else going on."

Kuss urged Binger to write down when the cracks occurred and promised to send officials to the woman's home to look over the damage.

Debby Ernst has not heard the sound or felt the tremors but said she is still considering going elsewhere until the mystery is solved.

"It worries me. I'm scared," Ernst, a gas station cashier, said in a phone interview. "Who's to say it ain't going to get worse?"

However, a local scientist said nothing has surfaced that suggests townspeople should be afraid.

Steve Dutch, a geologist at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, said the ground beneath them is solid, and that there are no known earthquake fault lines in the area.

Dutch said he heard some people worrying that a sinkhole might open up and swallow homes. That can happen in areas where the ground is rich with limestone and other rocks that can be dissolved by water, he said. But the rock below Clintonville is mainly solid granite that's largely impermeable.

However, he speculated that water and granite could hold the key to the mystery. Granite has small cracks that water can fill, but if the underground water table falls especially low, water can seep out, leaving gaps that cause the rocks to settle and generate loud noises.

"Maybe the very dry winter caused more water to be removed from the water table, either through pumping or natural flow," he said.

A seismic station near Clintonville, a town of about 4,600 people about 40 miles west of Green Bay, has recorded unusual ground shaking since Sunday night. Scientists say such activity can be caused by mining and heavy truck traffic, but since there are no mines or major construction in the area, the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey will take a closer look at the data.

Some residents are having fun with the mystery, which has drawn media attention from around the nation.

Jordan Pfeiler said people stayed up late on the first two nights to walk around listening for booms. They came up with outlandish theories to explain the noise — for example, that the White House was building an underground bunker in the area or that mole men had found a home there.

"And the aliens, of course, there's always the aliens," she said.

Van Beek understands the temptation to crack jokes, but it's no laughing matter to her.

"Everything people think it is has been ruled out. They just don't have answers," she said. "At this point all I want is for it to stop."

SOURCE: http://ap.savannahnow.com/pstories/us/2 ... 1847.shtml

Related article at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/sto ... 53684366/1
 
Here's a coincidence. About 10 minutes ago we heard two loud bangs which appeared to come from behind our house, roughly north. I put this on Facebook and my sister in law, who lives at the diagonal opposite end of town, replied that they'd heard them too!
 
escargot1 said:
Here's a coincidence. About 10 minutes ago we heard two loud bangs which appeared to come from behind our house, roughly north. I put this on Facebook and my sister in law, who lives at the diagonal opposite end of town, replied that they'd heard them too!

Damn! Must adjust the mortar.

Just shelling you.
 
Watch your hostas, that's all I'm saying.
 
Typhoon sonic boom behind mysterious bang reports - MoD

A loud bang which sparked a deluge of calls to emergency services across a large part of England was a sonic boom from a Typhoon aircraft, the MoD said.
Mystified residents across the West Midlands, Warwickshire, Oxfordshire, Somerset and Wiltshire reported hearing a loud boom at about 18:10 BST.
The MoD revealed it was from a Typhoon responding to an emergency call.

A Coventry resident called Gary said: "I thought somebody had thrown a brick at the house."
He added: "When I went out there were quite a few people in the street wondering what it was."

A sonic boom is created as an aircraft breaks the sound barrier, causing a high-energy shockwave.
The Ministry of Defence initially said it was investigating what was behind the loud noise, but a spokesman later confirmed it was from one of two RAF Typhoons that had been launched following an emergency call from a helicopter.
The MoD said the Typhoons, from the Quick Reaction Alert (QRA), based at RAF Conningsby in Lincolnshire, were scrambled and authorised to go supersonic after the small civilian helicopter had emitted an emergency signal.
A spokesman said the frequency was only used when an aircraft was in particular trouble, such as a hijacking.

He said the aircraft were already on their way to the helicopter by the time the helicopter pilot realised he was transmitting on the wrong frequency and switched to the correct one.
"There was no actual threat to the civilian aircraft and they soon rectified their mistake," the MoD spokesman added.

Richard Coglan, who was in Bath at the time of the incident, said: We saw the Eurofighter [Typhoon] circle the helicopter at very slow speed using full thrust just to stay up.
"The helicopter was a small one and totally dwarfed by the typhoon we thought it was filming the Typhoon."

Before the MoD explained the cause, a number of organisations said they were investigating the origin of the sound.
Among them were Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service, which received a flood of calls, and the British Geological Survey.
Avon and Somerset Police also said they had received reports of a loud bang in the area.
Some of those who heard it said the sound lasted a few seconds.

Tom Sykes, from Highworth, Wiltshire, said: "I was sat at my desk doing some work and it felt like someone had put up a massive bass speaker at my feet.
"I'm sure that they didn't move up in the air but they felt like they were with the vibration. I thought the window had come in."

Terry Organ, from Oldfield Park, Bath, said he saw the Typhoon.
"I thought [the sound] was a commercial airliner and then I thought 'no way'," he said.
"We watched for a while and then we saw this aircraft appear and it was a Typhoon but it was flying amazingly slow and we thought it was going to come down.
"It was doing really tight, slow circles and it suddenly put on full power and the noise was unbelievable, it was really blasting it out, and then it moved a bit further on and it did another slow turn.

"My impression was that it was struggling to stay up but then he put on full power again and you just couldn't hear anything.
"The noise was terrific, I imagine you could hear it for miles."

Another person who reported hearing the boom, who gave his name as Dave, from Warwick, described the sound as "like sitting on a hard shoulder and a big lorry going past".
"It shook the building and the windows popped," he added.

It is the second time this year that a sonic boom has been created by a Typhoon aircraft.
In January, the MoD confirmed that a loud noise heard by people across the north of England was caused by an RAF fighter jet breaking the sound barrier.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-17697328
 
I heard it, faintly - was in the garden at the time and assumed it was thunder. However my son was out and about with friends on higher ground and heard it much more clearly, and saw one of the Typhoons loop round a little later (we're only about 10 miles from Bath.) However, there's a more Fortean angle to it as well..

From here
Two fighter jets screamed across the skies above Bath last night in an incident that was still raising questions this morning.

The Ministry of Defence and police said the supersonic aircraft were responding to what appeared to be an emergency call from a helicopter.

Residents from Peasedown to Weston saw and heard one of the Typhoon Eurofighters flying low over the city yesterday evening.

?It was tracking a helicopter flying over the Bath area, but the other one of the pair appeared to be concentrating on a silver object much higher in the sky.

The Ministry of Defence said last night that the Typhoon had created a sonic boom as it responded to the helicopter which was transmitting an emergency message...

...The MoD said: "We can confirm that a small civilian aircraft was transmitting inadvertently on an emergency frequency at approximately 6.10pm. Two Typhoons from the Quick Reaction Alert responded accordingly and authorisation was given from them to go supersonic which resulted in the sonic boom. There was no actual threat to the civilian aircraft and they soon rectified their mistake."

A statement from Avon and Somerset Police said: “We received reports of a loud bang in various locations in the force area at about 6.15pm.

“It is believed that this was from a sonic boom from jet aircraft passing over the area. The jets were responding to reports of a civilian helicopter that had a faulty transponder; the helicopter completed its journey and landed safe and well outside the force area with no issues.”
...

Neither statement made any reference to the presence of the other object - said to be silver and rocket-shaped, with speculation that it might have been a weather balloon.

Sean Whyte from Bath said one jet had flown as low as 2,000ft over Weston and Odd Down in pursuit of the helicopter.

“The jet was weaving around the helicopter as if to warn it off. The noise was incredible.”

But he added: “At the same time high above, another Typhoon, the shape is very distinctive, was seemingly buzzing a white object at about 35,000 ft. This white rocket-shaped object was in the NE and stationary. Clouds eventually obscured both but we had been watching for maybe five minutes. We were not seeing things!”

A witness on this website said: “My mother and sister also witnessed the silver floating object. They described it as shaped like a rocket, and that it moved horizontally, then stopped, then moved vertically up until they lost sight of it.”

The jet had circled low over the south of the city.

One eyewitness said: "It appeared quite close to the helicopter and it was very loud.

"It was around for a good five minutes or so and it was pretty low."

Another eyewitness said: "It circled for quite a while. It was low over Southdown."

Oldfield Rugby Club posted a picture of the drama on Twitter, saying: "Camera scrambled as Fighter jet pulls away from helicopter over Shoscombe, not best picture but WOW it was amazing see!"

@rustywhite1984 said: "The fighter jet zooming around above bath at the mo is loud, are we under attack?"

@lgladdy said on Twitter: "Amazing fighter jet display going on over bath right now."

A sonic boom is the sound associated with the shockwaves created when an object travels through the air and breaks the sound barrier.

The noise contains large amounts of sound energy, meaning sonic booms are often mistaken for explosions.

It is the second time this year that a sonic boom has been created by a Typhoon aircraft.

In January, the MoD confirmed that a loud noise heard by people across the North of England was caused by an RAF fighter jet breaking the sound barrier

Does raise the question as to why they scrambled two Typhoons to deal with an apparently distressed chopper - unless the Olympic security protocol is to shoot down potential-air threats - but the second Typhoon was quite clearly interested in the silver object. Could have been a solar balloon I suppose: there were lots of interesting atmospherics going on over this part of the world yesterday which may explain its odd trajectory. But the Typhoons involvement are what make this interesting :).
 
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