Monday, September 6, 2010

Mystery Booms Pose Enduring Puzzle, Potential Threat

Over the weekend, I received the following e-mail that recounts a recent "mystery boom" event.

I came upon your site while doing a Google search & thought I would pass this on. Early Sunday morning (4-5:00 am; didn’t check exactly) on 9/5/10 my wife & I were awakened by what sounded to be a single, loud clap of thunder. I’m a bit of a weather freak so I knew that was unlikely due to the desert-like dry air we have had the last couple of days. It was cool so we had all the windows open & heard the sound clearly. All 3 dogs jumped up & one began growling. A quick look out the front door revealed a crystal clear starlit sky (as expected) with no clouds. Even though it was at night, I am quite sure it was neither a gunshot nor fireworks; much louder & deeper, but no echo. My guess would be a bolide exploded in the sky, but I can’t seem to find anything about a fireball on the local news websites. So, for the moment I’ll chalk it up to a “mystery boom” and pass it on to you. We live in rural Creek county, Southwest of Keifer & Mounds, Ok, near the border between Creek & Okmulgee counties.

I have posted about this unexplained sonic phenomenon on Strange State before. In early 2009, similar reports came in from the southeastern corner of the state. USGS scientists who study these things believe they may be the "snapping" of shallow earthquakes, perhaps precursors to a larger event. Geologists believe the famous quake that leveled the Missouri town of New Madrid in 1811-1812 is expected to make a comeback soon. Eastern Oklahoma lies within the damage radius of the New Madrid Seismic Zone.

Although, it should be noted that the events of last year seem to lack any verifiable seismic activity. Geologists at the time could find no correlating event to explain what was heard in LeFlore and Adair Counties.

1 comment:

MARILYN A. HUDSON, MLIS said...

I would suggest it is related to the geologic activity building throughout the eastern OK and Ozark regions since about 2005. Such booms have been associated with both earthquake and volcanic activity.