[meteorite-list] Mysterious Boom Shakes South Carolina Homes

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Sep 22 13:21:58 2004
Message-ID: <200409221721.KAA09997_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.charleston.net/stories/092204/loc_22boom.shtml

Unknown noise shakes James Island homes
BY STEVE REEVES
The Post and Courier (South Carolina)
September 22, 2004

The cause of a mysterious boom that rattled windows and shook houses on
James Island late Tuesday morning remains unknown.

Dozens of people called authorities about 10:30 a.m. when the sound
reverberated across James Island.

Officers were dispatched to determine whether the source of the noise
might have been some sort of explosion, but the investigation turned up
no clues.

"We still don't know what it was," Charleston Police spokesman Charles
Francis said.

No severe weather was in the area at the time of the booming sound, and
no earthquake activity was reported in the Lowcountry.

Some people speculated that the sound was a sonic boom, perhaps caused
by a military jet on a training mission.

But military officials at the Charleston Air Force Base said no planes
flying from that facility at the time of the noise would have made a
sonic boom, which requires a plane to travel at more than 700 mph to
break the sound barrier.

Other nearby military facilities, such as the Marine Corps Air Station
in Beaufort, also said their aircraft weren't responsible.

A spokesman for the FAA in Atlanta said no civilian aircraft would have
produced a sonic boom.

A similar sound rocked the Lowcountry in August 2003. No cause was ever
found, though some opined that it could have been "Seneca Guns," a folk
explanation used to describe unexplained booms dating back to the
18th-century.

Some theorize that so-called Seneca Guns could be caused by gases being
released from the ocean floor or a sudden rush of cold air hitting the
Gulf Stream.
Received on Wed 22 Sep 2004 01:21:54 PM PDT