High Country Beat By Ed Kociela

Sunday, November 9, 2003

It's time to admit that my friend and office-mate Jennifer Weaver and friend and radio host Steve Miner are not the only people with unusual UFO experiences recently.

I haven't seen anything funny in the sky, but I sure have heard some strange rumblings -- and I know it's for real because my wife has heard them and even my dogs have been startled from their napping a couple of times over the past few weeks by strange noises from the sky.

Not long ago, another friend told me he saw the B-2 bomber flying over Cedar Mountain. This guy is about to become a pilot and has a set of eyes on him that an eagle would covet, so I don't doubt his report.

The B-2, however, doesn't sound like some of the things that have shaken my home and ears. Whatever it is, it's flying very high -- out of my eyesight at least -- and fast. And with the sound seemingly echoing around the valley, it's difficult to pinpoint the spot in the sky where this aircraft is flying.

Now just because we can't identify it doesn't mean there are aliens patrolling the neighborhood, to be sure, although it would be interesting to cover an extraterrestrial landing.

I have noticed that there have been a number of corkscrew contrails flowing across the sky, indicating some sort of jet propulsion. Normal jet engines do not produce that kind of pattern, at least in my experience. Calling the U.S. Air Force would be futile, especially since we are so close to Area 51 and Nellis Air Force Base where the military does things we're not supposed to know about. But if anybody else has heard or seen something strange in the skies, let me know. I hate to sound like Art Bell, but there is definitely something odd going on above us.

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January 20, 2004

Windows rattled.

People frantically dialed 911.

Sound familiar? No, it's not Lititz.

It's Manatee County, Florida, where in June residents heard and felt the same kinds of thunderous booms reported in the small Lancaster County town eight days ago.

The mysterious explosion heard in Florida was only one case among 20 reported to police across the country in the last several years, according to the Bradenton Herald newspaper.

Similar phenomena have occurred as close as Dover, Del., the paper reported. And just like those, the booms heard in Lititz on Jan. 12 remain unexplained.

Weird.

Very, very weird.

"It's one of those things people would like an answer for,'' said Randy Gockley, the county's emergency management coordinator. "It's one of those unexplained things.'' In addition to Lititz, the sporadic booms here have also been felt in Elizabeth and Manor townships, Columbia Borough and parts of eastern Lancaster County dating back to Jan. 2.

Several good theories have been debunked.

Was it roadwork near the Lancaster Airport? Blasting at a Lititz-area quarry? A series of small earthquakes? No, no and no.

Was it a sonic boom from a supersonic fighter jet? It depends on whom you ask.

Charles K. Scharnberger, a professor emeritus at Millersville University and expert on earthquakes, has ruled out a quarry blast or earthquake -- both of which would have clearly registered on a seismograph.

"I would think that blasting is enough of a charge that if that many people felt it, I certainly would have recorded a clear signal,'' he said. "I see quarry blasts all the time. Whatever this little thing I saw was, it was not a quarry blast or an earthquake.

"A sonic boom is still the best explanation I can think of,'' Scharnberger said. "The only outfit flying faster than the speed of sound is the military.'' Typically, though, military fighters do not fly exercises over populated areas because of the panic their sonic booms cause below.

Officials at both Harrisburg International and Lancaster airports refuted theories that the noises were caused by aircraft traveling at or above the speed of sound overhead.

"My operations people aren't aware of anything like that,'' said HIA spokesman Scott Miller. "They don't get many supersonic airplanes through here.'' An air-traffic controller backed up his story: "We didn't have any particularly large aircraft going through here -- nothing large enough that would be going that fast or cause something like that.'' At the Lancaster Airport, air traffic manager John Moeller said that if the noise were a sonic boom, many more people than the several dozen who called police would have felt it.

"A sonic boom doesn't fly,'' Moeller said. "When it happens, it happens over a very broad area. Anything that's off the nose of the aircraft is going to feel it. If you feel it in Lititz, you feel it in Neffsville and Lancaster.'' Moeller said the booms heard on Jan. 12 may have been caused by construction near the airport.

Mountville-based Abel Construction Co. is relocating parts of Millport and Kissel Hill roads in a $9.1 million project that will lay the groundwork for a runway extension.

But Bill Mead, the project manager, poked a pretty big hole in that theory. "We haven't done any blasting over there since before Christmas,'' he said.

Jeff Weidman, an accountant who works in Brownstown, suggested the mysterious booms could be "frost quakes'' -- such as the one he and his co-workers felt Monday night.

"It actually felt like something fell on top of the roof. It shook the building quite a bit,'' said Weidman, who works at Detweiler, Hershey & Associates on Oregon Pike.

"We kind of looked out the window to see if anything fell over or if there was an accident,'' Weidman said. "We didn't see anything.'' A frost quake, Scharnberger explained, occurs when a thick layer of ice covering the ground suddenly cracks.

"It can make a loud, sharp banging sound,'' he said.

While that explanation is certainly plausible for the loud boom in Brownstown Monday night, it most likely does not explain what happened on Jan. 12, Scharnberger said.

There was no ice on the ground, and the temperature was above freezing.

"I don't think we had such conditions,'' Scharnberger said.

The mystery continues.


Tom Murse
Lancaster New Era via Lancaster Online

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By Minnie Roh
NBC12 News
Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Those mysterious booms have returned and they're shaking up residents on Richmond's Northside. Residents first reported hearing and feeling those "booming" noises on election night. But they ended as mysteriously as they began. Then, just two nights ago, the "booms" were back.

Officials are at a loss. They say they've looked at everything from sewer gasses to kids doing mischief. They have even contacted the state's emergency management services. But, the source of those booms continues to evade them.

Carrie Bowen says the noises scare her, especially since it typically seems to happen close to midnight when she is turning in for the night.

The strange booms rocked the neighborhood two weeks ago around Election Day, causing many residents to speculate that terrorism was involved. City officials have ruled out that possibility. Bowen says she just wants to noises to stop. Or at the very least, know why it's happening.

“Sounded like a bulldozer banging into a trash can,” says Bowen.

Dozens of Northside residents have called the city after feeling and hearing these booms. City spokesman Bill Farrar admits he's stumped. The city's looked into everything from sewer gas explosions to the air national guard doing flyovers in the area. So now, they wait for the next boom to occur.

“We'll come out, and hear it for ourselves. And follow it, test and isolate and locate it,” says Farrar.

Farrar urges anyone who hears or feels those booms to call 9-1-1 immediately. He says they are trying to get a map of all the calls so they can pinpoint the location more accurately.

(c) 2004. Jefferson Pilot Communications. All rights reserved.

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After about a month of silence, Fort Wayne's mysterious "boom" has returned.

"You can't describe it," said Helene Lilly, who heard it almost 10 times Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. "You think you're in a war."

Newschannel 15 and the Fort Wayne Police Department have each received dozens of phone calls about the noises. This time, the loudest ones seem to have come from near Parkview Hospital on eEst State Boulevard.

The people in that neighborhood said their houses were rocked and their windows were rattled repeatedly sinceTtuesday night. According to residents, there were four loud booms between 9:30 p.m. and midnight, and another round of four between 6 a.m. And 8:15 a.m. Wednesday.

As of right now, neighbors are concerned. "I need help because I can't sleep, it scares me, and it scares my whole neighborhood and the children over there, they're upset, too. And it just isn't right you know?" Lilly said.

The Fort Wayne Police have no answers. "It's a rabbit we're still trying to chase down the hole right now," said PIO Michael Joyner. "We don't know what the source is." Joyner said the FWPD has already increased patrols of the area to try to identify the source.

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Experts Debate Sounds' Source

POSTED: 11:30 am EST December 13, 2004

CHARLESTON -- A loud boom breaks the stillness on a clear day. There are no storms in the area, no jet aircraft flying by and no reports of earthquakes or explosions.

The booms, heard from time to time in South Carolina, are popularly known as Seneca Guns, a folk term for unexplained booms that have been noted along the East Coast for years.

The name comes from Seneca Lake in upstate New York where the booms have been heard at least since the 1800s. Author James Fenimore Cooper, who wrote "The Last of the Mohicans" among other novels, wrote about the phenomenon in a short story more than 150 years ago.

One was heard in the Charleston area on Aug. 1 last year. Another apparent Seneca Gun was heard in May 2000 in the Midlands of South Carolina.

While there is apparently no official records of such booms, they generally bring dozens of phone calls to law enforcement officials who can generally offer no explanation.

There is no agreement on what causes the booms.

Rich Thacker, a senior forecaster with the National Weather Service in Charleston, said they could result of colder air meeting warmer Gulf Stream air. There have also been suggestions the booms might be caused by methane gas explosions on the ocean floor.

Tyler Clark, the chief geologist for the North Carolina Geological Survey, said he has heard explanations ranging from sonic booms carrying over the ocean to methane gas explosions, meteorites and even unidentified flying objects.

Duke University seismologist Peter Malin said he knows how to tell where the noises are coming from. He suggests putting a recorder under ground and then comparing the readings to readings from a recorder above ground.

He suggests the booms are caused in the atmosphere by electrical discharges with no visible lightning.
Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All rights

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March 11, 2005 Sky Quakes / Mysterious Explosions in Florida

On March 11, 2005, between the hours of 7:30 pm and 7:50 pm EST in and around Tampa Florida,

a huge rumbling explosion sound occurred that left many residents wondering just what the source of the explosions where and why they occurred.

Several reports regarding this occurrence where reported to Shadow Research, Inc. both email reports and phoned in reports on the toll-free hotline. 

The sound that was reported is consistent in the description made by all witnesses, who described the sound as a low, deep rumble very different from he sound that might accompany a shock wave made by an airplane.  The rumble lasted several seconds, from 8 to 10 seconds in length with about 3 explosions very close together.  The rumble also caused doors, windows and other household items to shake and move. 

As the explosive sounds occurred, residents came from their houses and out into the streets to have a look around and hopefully see what the source of the sounds were.  As friends and neighbors talked to one another it was clear that the source of the sounds was unclear, yet powerful.

Shortly after the explosions occurred the local news started to report on them.  The Bay News 9, at 8:00 pm EST, stated that they received numerous calls concerning the explosive sounds.  According to one report that came into Shadow Research, Inc., the witness had this to report: The anchor told the viewing audience that they had no idea what caused the sounds, then in mid-sentence the newscast went into advertisements.  After 3 or four advertisements the newscast resumed.  The anchor said, something to the effect, “no need to worry..  it was only two fighter jets flying over the area - coming   into land at MacDill Air Force Base too fast”.  The witness who sent in this report also stated that the statement sounded very scripted!

During March 12, 2005, I did some searching for more information on this Sky quake report and found that at first it was thought to be an earthquake and was recorded on seismographic equipment.  As you can see below, it is still under investigation and not confirmed, but one thing is correct if it was picked up as a possible earthquake, it was at ground level.

Recent Earthquake Activity in the USA

Magnitude ? (uncertain or not yet determined) - FLORIDA PENINSULA
2005 March 12 00:41:55 UTC

Preliminary Earthquake Report
U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center
World Data Center for Seismology, Denver

The longitude and latitude of the above mentioned (uncertain) earthquake activity was 27.950 N 82.460 W.  It is interesting to note that MacDill Air Force Base is located at 27.846 N 82.5182 W, only 7.9819 statute miles from the location of the (uncertain) earthquake. 

The above Yahoo map shows the location of MacDill Air Force Base.  I have included this map to show the proximity of this

 base in conjunction with the explosion, and the “uncertain” earthquake.  Take a moment and view both maps.

The bloggers were busy trying to find out just what happened.  The location for these blogs and comments can be found at

 www.freerepublic.com.  Below I have included some of the comments from the Free Republic news blog area.

-

We're in south St. Pete, my neighbor just said he saw a few planes headed for Macdill.
-
He assumed sonic boom, but also said it lasted a long time for a sonic boom. But maybe if it was multiple jets that might happen.

Weather for the Tampa, Florida area.

Shadow Research, Inc. will continue to pursue this story and will report our findings.  In ending I would like to pose 

some questions.

Can a sonic boom cause a reading on seismographic equipment?

How did the Bayside News 9 find that the source of the “booms” were fighter jets? 

A special thanks to all that contacted Shadow Research, Inc concerning this report.  We are very appreciative.  Many ----thanks!

------

Sonic booms shake up area

Navy jets arriving at MacDill break the sound barrier and shatter the quiet of a Friday evening.

Seminole resident Henry Remi walked outside when he heard what sounded like a series of loud explosions Friday evening.

His neighbor had done the same thing.

"You hear that?" Remi asked.

"Yeah, I heard it," replied the neighbor.

Remi said he wanted to make sure he wasn't losing his mind. He wasn't.

What Remi and thousands of other residents from Citrus to Manatee counties heard and felt was two F-18 jets breaking the sound barrier. The resulting booms resonated from Citrus to Manatee counties.

The two Navy F-18 Hornets arrived from a naval air station in Pensacola and landed about 8 p.m., said Air Force 2nd Lt. Larry Vanderoord, spokesman for MacDill Air Force Base. He called their arrival a "routine landing" and said these planes usually fly faster and lower than typical planes landing at MacDill.

The jets, based out of California, were scheduled to take off again today or Sunday.

"They are very fast, and when they come in, they're very loud," Vanderoord said.

The shaking registered on the U.S. Geological Survey seismograph in Orlando, measuring 2.7 on the Richter Scale, the equivalent of a weak earthquake. Central Florida is not an active earthquake area, said USGS duty officer Madeleine Zirbes.

"They did see it register," Zirbes said from Denver, Colo. "They thought immediately that it could be a sonic boom."

The blast prompted hundreds of calls to area newspapers, TV and radio stations and local authorities. Many residents headed outside to find out why their homes were shaking.

Remi has heard the double boom that comes when space shuttles re-enter the atmosphere. On Friday, he said it sounded more like five or six booms in a row.

"I never heard so many booms come as rapidly as that," he said.

Carrollwood resident Mark Thatcher heard the rumbling over the noise of his television set.

"It just sounded like an airplane really close," he said.

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MORE BLASTS IN BAY AREA - California - USA

October 1955

Three more blasts--unexplained, but believed to be sonic booms from jet planes--were reported last night in the Bay area.  No damage was reported.

The first noise was heard in the Martinez-Concord area at about 8:15 p.m., and was variously described by residents there as sounding like "a howitzer going off" and "a blast of dynamite."

The second and third disturbances were heard in the Palo-Alto Menlo Park area where police said blasts were reported at 11:25 and 11:50 p.m.

Hamilton Air Force Base and Alameda Naval Station said they had no jet fighters in the air at the time.

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"BLASTS" JAR EASTSIDERS  California, USA

October 1955

At least four sharp and unexplained explosions were heard by homeowners in a wide area of East San Jose last night. 

The blasts rattled windows in some houses along King Road.  They were so loud that some householders thought their water heaters had exploded.

A sheriff's car sent into the area to investigate had been unable to find any source for the blasts at a late hour.

There were no reports of fires, dynamiting or other damage.  Reporting parties timed the first blast at shortly before 8:00 p.m. and the last about 9:00 p.m.

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March 6, 2005-

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Forsyth County residents reported hearing two loud booms and feeling the ground and buildings shake Saturday night, but the source of the noise was unknown. Winston-Salem fire and police heard the noise, as did EMS personnel downtown.

The Forsyth County Emergency Management contacted the U.S Geological Survey, which said that if there was seismic activity in the area, if registered less than 4.0 on the Richter scale, police said.

There were no reports of injuries or structural damage.

People reported hearing the noise downtown, in the West End and at Joel Coliseum. However, people said they didn't hear the noise at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center or near Hanes Mall.

Kernersville police said they didn't hear it, and neither did the Forsyth County Fire Department or the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office.

Duke Power reported no outages or transformer explosions, and Piedmont Natural Gas also reported no problems.

A communications officer at Piedmont Triad International Airport said that the sound wasn't heard there, and had no explanation for it.

Officials with both Pope Air Force Base in Fayetteville and the Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, in Goldsboro, said that no military aircraft were flying over the area at the time.

A meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Raleigh said there was no thunder or lightning in the area.


Source: The News & Observer

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Ahmedabad News

Saturday , March 12, 2005

D.V. Maheshwari

Bhuj, March 12: The mysterious blasts which were heard in central and western Kutch early this month triggering panic among people have no connection whatsoever with an earthquake or any movement in the earth’s crust. This was confirmed by leading geologist, Dr Arun Bapat on a special visit to the region on Thursday. The reason could be a sonic boom caused by supersonic aircrafts that frequent the region, he opined.

‘‘Bapat who visited our state of art seismological observatory confirmed that the blasts were neither caused by an earthquake nor an aftershock,’’ said U K Shinde, in charge of Bhuj Seismological observator on Friday.


He said Bapat had studied the earthquake-related data and two graphs that did not record any quake or aftershock during the blasts. He said their Delhi headquarters were contacted soon after the blasts and they too ruled out any connection of the blasts with the destructive movements under the earth’s crust.

Bapat, who also visited epicentre of the January 2001 earthquake at Lodia and nearby Dhrung village, before leaving for Saurashtra region on Friday morning, told people that they need not panic, as these mysterious sounds were not from below the earth but from the air. But, Bapat however could not specify as to what elements in the atmosphere caused the sound. ‘‘It may be sonic boom from super-sonic aircraft of the Indian Air Forc, but I can not say anything unless I obtain data from the IAF,’’ Bapat said.

He said these could also be aftershocks, but not any major earthquake, the kind this border district experienced four years ago. He said Koyna in Maharashtra which had temblor of 6.5 magnitude in 1969, continues to experience aftershocks even today. So it could happen in Kutch also, he said, adding that these would gradually decrease. He said the border district experienced highest number of such shocks in 2001 (953) followed by 149 in 2002; 51 in 2003; 27 in 2004 and only 4 since January this year. He said his study showed that the quake had affected underground water resources with rivers and other water bodies changing their course of flow.Bhuj Air Force station commander group captain NJF Dhilon when contacted on Friday, however did not rule out the blasts from the sonic boom. ‘‘Such defeaning sounds do occur when super-sonic planes break the sound barrier. But since our aircraft from various bases in the state keep flying, we can not say which plane caused the phenomenon and where,’’ he said.

 

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Big Booms Still Unexplained in Union County
February 25, 2005


El Dorado, AR (AP) - Authorities in Union County say they aren't sure what caused sounds that some thought were explosions on Thursday.

The booms started between 9:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. Witnesses say the sound rattled windows and got dogs to bark. In the early evening, people complained about more booming sounds.

Officials say the sounds could have been caused by a timber company or someone else blowing up beaver dams.
 

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Alabama - The Associated Press

April 06, 2005

A minor earthquake shook southeastern Massachusetts on Tuesday evening, prompting a flood of worried calls to area police departments.

The Weston Observatory at Boston College reported the magnitude 2.3 tremor, which struck about 7 p.m. EDT about six miles north of New Bedford, somewhere in Freetown, was felt in nearby communities, including Achushnet, Marion, Mattapoisett, Dartmouth and Rochester.

"Most reports we had were of a loud bang," said Dina Smith, the observatory's associate director for operations. She said a quake of that size is big enough to be noticed, but not enough to cause damage.

"It sounded like a big truck hitting a big pothole, but it did shake this whole building," New Bedford firefighter Jim Kummer told WCVB-TV.

Tracy Tichon of Fairhaven was at her grandmother's house with family when they felt the quake. "We were all standing in the living room and all of a sudden it sounded like a sonic boom. And then the house started to shake," Tichon said.

The family joked the noise and vibration could have been an earthquake.

Earthquakes in the region are not unusual. Seismologists at Weston Observatory have said that New England averages six noticeable earthquakes a year.

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By Carol Glassman
Some Marco residents were startled awake by a loud deep, reverberating rumble instead of the annoying buzz of an alarm clock early Monday morning.

Police Chief Roger Reinke said, "We heard it plainly here at the station. I checked to see if there was a crash at one of the intersections, and the phone calls came in shortly thereafter. Since we had no reports of damage, I did not think it necessary to invest any resources in determining the cause. A few people came up with the military jets over the gulf (sonic boom) theory. That seems to make the most sense."

There has been no further information about the event.

©Marco Island Sun Times 2005

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KATU 2 News - Portland, Oregon
www.katu.com
 

March 13, 2006

 - By KATU.com Web Staff

PORTLAND, Ore. - 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 lightening.

It seems everyone had their idea what the noises were and nearly everyone had a different opinion about how long it lasted.

 What do you think it was?

A meteor was the best guess from the National Weather Service, but that is unconfirmed.

The Cowlitz County 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.

We are still waiting to hear back from them.

TV News Script:

[TAKE OFF NATS]

     FROM F-15'S LAUNCHING AT PDX

(Don :14 "all of a sudden I felt the walls of my house shake and rumble.")
[Duration:0:05]

TO A FIREBALL... LIKE THE ONE CAUGHT ON TAPE LAST YEAR...

(Jenny 6:07 "Just bang, stopped dead in my tracks.")
    [Duration:0:03]

     TO THE SEISMOGRAPHS THAT TRACK EARTHQUAKES...PEOPLE HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR ANSWERS.
     DON ALLEN EVEN CALLED 9-11.
(Don Allen #1, 19:14 "9-11 can I help you? - Up in hazel dell there were just two loud rumbles.")
[Duration:0:04]

     JENNY SWINMURN ALSO CALLED 9-11 THINKING A MAN WAS BREAKING INTO HER HOUSE.
(Jenny 6:50 "It was more like thunk. It sounded like someone big and heavy was climbing over a wood fence.")
[Duration:0:06]

   FROM TALKING TO SCIENTIST WE CAN RULE OUT AN EARTHQUAKE FOR THE STRANGE RUMBLE OR RUMBLES...DEPENDING ON WHO YOU TALK TO.
 WE CAN RULE OUT MT. ST. HELENS..  AND A THUNDER STORM
[Notes:THUNDER NATS]

 IS ALSO OFF THE LIST...BECAUSE SO MANY PEOPLE REPORT EXPERIENCING THE SAME THING… AT THE SAME TIME...OVER SUCH A LARGE AREA.

(Jenny 7:46 "which leaves us with two things - 7:48 "aliens.")
[Duration:0:04]

 MAYBE NOT ALIENS... BUT EXTRATERRESTRIALS...
 IT COULD HAVE BEEN A METEOR LIKE THIS ONE ON DISPLAY AT OMSI.
(Jim Todd, OMSI 12:14 "If it's a fireball, when it comes in the atmosphere, generally it will break the sound barrier, a boom, boom, kind of a fraction of a second from each other.")
[Duration:0:09]

(Jenny 7:00 "It wasn't like a boom and that was it, it was a little longer.")
 [Duration:0:05]

WHICH WOULD SEEM TO POINT TO THE F-15'S AT THE PORTLAND AIR BASE.
THEY WERE DOING LOTS OF FLYING OVER THE WEEKEND.
 BUT THE AIR GUARD TELLS US ALL OF THEIR FIGHTERS WERE ON THE GROUND BY 6PM… SATURDAY...THREE HOURS BEFORE THE MYSTERIOUS SOUND.
     THAT LEAVES THE FOLLOWING CONCLUSION.

(Jim Todd Omsi, 14;42 "You're guess is as good as mine.")
[Duration:0:03]

(Don Allen, 1:42 "I can't explain it.")
[Duration:0:03]

(Thanks for sending in this report!)

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April 11, 2007
BY DON WALKER
FLORIDA TODAY ADVERTISEMENT

----

Do you hear anything?
This story is developing. If you heard the explosion and would like to comment, please contact Walker at 242-3527 or e-mail dwalker@floridatoday.com. Please include name and a phone number.

The explosion was heard miles away.

At Pineda Crossing, near the Suntree subdivision, John Panik said he was having trouble sleeping, got out of bed and turned on the television just before 3 a.m.

“I was sitting there and suddenly there was a loud boom,” Panik said. “It shook the windows — not like a big rattle, but a little one. I thought, ‘That’s not normal.’”

The clock read 3:30 a.m. Panik called the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, and was told by dispatcher they’d send a deputy out to check out the area. He also contacted Patrick Air Force Base, and was told they didn’t know anything about it.

“I thought it was a sonic boom,” he said. “That’s what I told the sheriff. Like the shuttle returning, but usually you hear two booms, not one.”

This morning, reports of the explosion were all over the television.

“Everybody freaked out. My wife said, ‘Oh, you did hear something,’” Panik said.

There have also been calls to FLORIDA TODAY from residents in Satellite Beach who heard the explosion.

This story is developing. If you heard the explosion and would like to comment, please contact Walker at 242-3527 or e-mail dwalker@floridatoday.com. Please include name and a phone number.

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By JIM SABIN
Newark Advocate
February 14, 2007

NEWARK - Something happened at around 9 p.m. Wednesday that a lot of people heard.

But nobody seems to have any idea what it was.

What it was, though, might forever remain a mystery.

It was a loud bang, something loud enough to be heard across southern and central Ohio, and loud enough to make small objects move in houses. Reports have rolled into The Advocate from Hanover to Heath, from Buckeye Lake to Granville, and NBC4 heard reports from Muskingum, Fairfield and Pickaway counties.
Rumors range from an earthquake to a meteor strike, a sonic boom to something ice-related.

Was it simply falling ice? That's what many, including NBC4's Jym Ganahl, believe. But many also went outside to check because it sounded like their houses had been hit.

A few things have been eliminated. Instruments show it wasn't an earthquake.

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base told NBC4 that it didn't have any flights in the area, and North American Aerospace Defense Command said it knew of nothing man-made entering the atmosphere. NORAD did report a flight of National Guard jets out of Toledo over southern Ohio, but it was not fast enough to break the sound barrier and create a sonic boom.

While we may never know for sure, at least one scientist believes the meteor could be the answer.

Mike Hansen, director of the Ohio Seismic Network, said there's no evidence to suggest an earthquake could have caused the bang, especially not over the range specified. NBC-4 fielded calls from Fairfield, Muskingum and Pickaway counties, and the National Weather Service heard similar tales from Cincinnati, Wilmington and Lebanon.

Jeff Gill, of Granville, said he saw a meteor with a relatively long trail, with red, green and gold coloration. It was headed east to west and lasted about three seconds; after it faded, the sonic boom washed over him, he said.

"I saw it first. It was the most eerie, cool, scary, wonderful thing. You just see this dragon tail going across the sky," said Gill, who also writes a religion column for the Newark Advocate. "All of a sudden, everything goes boom."

He said he checked his watch and thought it said 9:42 p.m., but now he can't be certain. A seismograph at the Ohio Seismic Network's office in Alum Creek picked up something that Hansen said was more than likely something noise-related, but other seismographs, including a more sensitive machine in the same building, didn't catch anything.

That report was at 8:42 p.m., which is more consistent with the other reports.

"His description there of the colors of it are consistent with a meteorite," said Hansen, who has also studied meteorites. "That would be an explanation of a sonic boom-type phenomenon."

A sonic boom travels across terrain behind the aircraft - or meteorite - creating it, he said. The speed of an average meteorite, 25,000 miles per hour, would certainly allow for similar reports across the state, and if the object was at a low trajectory, it could be heard literally far and wide.

The Licking County Sheriff's Office reported about 10 calls between 8:35 p.m. and 3:48 a.m. from residents hearing loud noises. Five of the calls came between 8:51 and 9:43 p.m.

Hansen said he hears similar time discrepancies all the time when dealing with earthquakes, which often are also noticed as loud bangs.

"People are notoriously bad at reporting the times," he said. "You have to look at these peoples' reports with a bit of skepticism on timing."

Most reported the bang at or near 9 p.m., roughly around the same time the Ohio State basketball game was ending on TV.

"The type of waves that I see is not earthquake-type stuff. What bothers me is we don't see it anywhere else," Hansen said. "Right now this is mysterious to me."

Major Bryan Hoover of the Muskingum County Sheriff's Office said he heard a loud noise around 1:30 a.m. Thursday.

"I got out and walked around my house thinking it was the ice or a tree falling," Hoover said. "But when I didn't see anything I wasn't sure what happened."

Hoover said before he left for work Thursday morning he learned his neighbors had also heard the noise.

"It wasn't like thunder rumbling," Hoover said. "I felt this. It actually shook the ground." When he reported to work he discovered even more people had heard the noise.

"It seems to have been heard all over Muskingum County and into South Zanesville and then into Licking County," Hoover said. "I heard some people reported hearing it at about 6:30 and then 7:30 in the morning. We just can't attribute it to anything."

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.

Hansen did offer one idea. 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.

A spokesman for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base said the base wasn't running any exercises Wednesday night that could account for a sonic boom.


comments:And there's more on the way. In 2012 reports say.
Will fall in Ohio or New York. Check it out on Google.

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 8:33 pm

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They explained this yesterday on the radio..calling it "Ice Heaving". Everyone has ice on their roofs.....the heat from the inside of your home hits the ice from the underneath and when that heat and ice combination hit the freezing temperatures that we've been having at night....BOOM! Everyones houses are doing it....that's why everyone is hearing it at random times throughtout the later hours of the day and into the evening.
Good enough explaination for me!!

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 2:42 pm

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I heard this somewhere close to 9pm - -I thought it was a car hitting another one but saw nothing outside - Nice to know others heard it too - amazing how wide-spread the area it was heard in was. Probably was a meteor. Glad it didn't do any damage. Nature is awesome -

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 2:21 pm

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