[meteorite-list] Mysterious Booms In San Diego County Remain Unknown

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Apr 28 12:07:47 2006
Message-ID: <200604272013.NAA14992_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.10news.com/news/9046484/detail.html

Mysterious Booms Remain Unknown
    
Scientists Say Noise Started Over Ocean
10News.com
April 17, 2006

SAN DIEGO -- La Jolla-based scientists say a mysterious boom heard and
felt throughout San Diego County earlier this month originated from an
area over the ocean, but the source of the disturbance remains unknown.

According to scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the
thunderous noise heard April 4 started over the ocean about 120 miles
off the San Diego coast and petered out over the Imperial County desert,
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Scientists said the spot where the rattling boom originated is in the
general vicinity of Warning Area 291, a huge swath of ocean used for
military training exercises. The Navy operates a live-fire range on San
Clemente Island, which is within Warning Area 291 and sits about 65
miles from Mission Bay, the newspaper reported.

But Steve Fiebing, a Coronado-based Navy representative, said the
live-fire range on San Clemente Island was inactive April 4. He also
said 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 Union-Tribune reported.

Peter Shearer, a Scripps professor involved in the research, has no idea
whether the disturbance was natural or made by humans, the Union-Tribune
reported.

"I would guess it's either an explosion that somebody hasn't told us
about or it could have been a meteor coming into the atmosphere,"
Shearer told the newspaper.

The Scripps researchers believe 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. They said it was picked up by
more than two dozen seismometers in San Diego and eastern Riverside
counties, the newspaper reported.

The boom heard around 8:45 a.m. rattled homes and buildings all
throughout San Diego County, including residences in Ramona and the
county sheriff's building in Clairemont Mesa.

Some people speculated the disturbance was the result of an earthquake.
But the U.S. Geological Survey said no measurable seismic activity was
recorded in the county that morning.

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http://www.sploid.com/news/2006/04/what_was_the_my.php

What was San Diego mystery boom?
Sploid
April 27, 2006

Scientists say they've tracked the San Diego Mystery Boom to a spot in
the Pacific Ocean about 120 miles offshore.

But they still have no idea what caused the "airquake that rocked
houses from the beach to the desert.

The scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla
used data from more than two dozen seismometers that recorded the sonic
boom on April 4.

The shock wave appeared to originate over "Warning Area 291", a
mysterious million-square-mile part of the Pacific Ocean that's closed
to civilian sea and air traffic.

U.S. Navy spokesmen continue to deny they were up to no good on April 4.

Navy Cmdr. William Fenick claimed that no warships were active in the
restricted area that day.

"We don't know at this time where this earthquake-like sensation came
from," he told local media.

They've also denied that Navy or Air Force jets caused a sonic boom that
day.

"I would guess it's either an explosion that somebody hasn't told us
about or it could have been a meteor coming into the atmosphere,"
Scripps professor Peter Shearer told the San Diego Union-Tribune.

"But it was certainly a big disturbance in the atmosphere."

No fireballs were reported on the morning of April 4.

The rumbling boom moved at about the speed of sound from the islands off
the coast of San Diego to the Anza-Borrego desert and the inland Salton
Sea. Earthquakes are much faster, geologists said.

Mystery booms have been driving people bats for years now. Skyquakes
have been known to break windows, set off car alarms and make animals go
insane.
Received on Thu 27 Apr 2006 04:13:18 PM PDT