Quoted from DoD News Briefing,
Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen, Q&A at the Conference on Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction,
and U.S. Strategy, University of Georgia, Athens, Apr. 28, 1997.
U.S. Defense Secretary William
Cohen expresses concern about eco-terrorism using scalar
electromagnetic weapons.
"Others [terrorists] are engaging even in an eco-type
of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely
through the use of electromagnetic waves ... So there are plenty of ingenious
minds out there that are at work finding ways in which they can wreak terror upon other nations ... It's
real, and that's the reason why we have to intensify our [counterterrorism] efforts."
Ed. Note: It is now possible to alter weather, deny weather, move
weather, guide hurricanes, cause flooding, cause volcanos, cause massive earthquakes, cause tsunamis, and alter atmosphere
conditions enabling disease to spread. Scalar waves can be directed as an aggressive weapon with
potential destruction far beyond atomic weapons. It is not a radio frequency wave, it is an entirely different wave unknown
to most of the world. We believe the transmitters directed at North America are Russian leased to terrorists.
Historical Background of Scalar EM Weapons by Lt. Col. T.E.
Bearden (retd.), 1990
MYSTERIOUS BOOMS OVER CITIES are a manifestation of Scalar Weapon application
at target areas.
April 28, 2008: MARYLAND: Police Make Headway In Baltimore Co. Mystery -- Officers
Vickie Warehime and J. Posluszny Jr. have solved a lot of mysteries, but this one is over their heads--literally. In
fact, it may be about 30 to 40 feet in the air. For months, the Baltimore County Community Outreach officers have
been investigating a bizarre phenomenon disturbing neighbors in an area of Pikesville near Beth Tfiloh Community School.
Now, they say they may be closer to an answer. Derek Valcourt reports 911 callers complain about a deafening explosion and
a bright flash of light in the middle of night. "The bedroom actually lights up like day," says Elaine O'Mansky, who lives
in the Stevenson Commons condominium building near Beth Tfiloh. "It's instantaneous and wakes us up out of a very deep sleep."
She isn't alone. Barbara Friedman is Homeowner's Association president for the area. She was up late one night sweeping her
back patio when she heard the boom. "I hit the deck," Friedman explained. "It was so loud, I thought I was being shot. I literally
hit the deck." After she realized she hadn't been shot, she started emailing other homeowners to see if they heard it too.
"Then my email got flooded because hundreds of people were hearing these noises and thought it was their imagination," she
said. The noise was so upsetting, Elaine O'Mansky decided it was time to start keeping track of the phenomenon when it occurred.
From late September until now, she's heard it 25 times, always between midnight and 7 a.m. with no consistent pattern.
Convinced something was wrong, Friedman and O'Mansky contacted police, who were skeptical at first. "We were a little bit
concerned that this was maybe a little bit of an exaggeration," said Sgt. Vickie Warehime. "They were saying they could see
(the light) through their window blinds." Police were concerned that if something really was as loud and as bright as neighbors
described, it could potentially be dangerous. So they began to investigate. Like many of the neighbors in the area, police
first guessed that the noise could be coming from a hunter's rifle. But O'Mansky reminded them of the bright flash of light.
So police started investigating whether it was an electrical or gas problem. Experts with BGE began checking all of the power
equipment in the area. They climbed on rooftops of the nearby Beth Tfiloh School and nearby condo building to check all of
their electrical equipment and air compressors, but found no evidence of problems. There was no electrical charring, burning
or malfunctioning equipment. A BGE spokesman confirms their investigation found no electrical problems or gas leaks
in the area.Then police decided to take the next step and install two cameras hoping to videotape the boom. Elaine O'Mansky
volunteered to wake up every night around midnight to turn on the camera officers had set up in a fifth floor window of her
building. "It wasn't until we caught it on tape that we realized the magnitude of what they were actually talking about,"
said Sgt. Warehime. "The sound is almost deafening. You can't describe it. Seeing it on tape without hearing the sound doesn't
do it justice." Videotape taken at 3:34 a.m. on April 23 does show a flash of light that lasts a fraction of a second and
lights up an area the size of a football field in the middle of the night. The flash on the tape is accompanied by loud boom
that sounds like a crack of electricity or lightning. WJZ meteorologist Bernadette Woods analyzed the dates, times and
weather conditions when the phenomenon occurs. "There's nothing coming out of the sky," said Woods, who added that weather
likely isn't the primary cause of the flash and boom, but it may be a contributing factor. "The atmospheric conditions could
be such that they are supporting the event." Cameras have videotaped the event on two other occasions. Police have used the
shadows cast by the light flash to determine an approximate area where they think the light source may be coming from--30
to 40 feet in the air in the parking lot between the Beth Tfiloh Community School and the Stevenson Commons condominiums building.
Officer Posluszny has already repositioned two cameras several times hoping to see the source of the boom and flash. "So when
we get it again, and we will get it again, we should be able to narrow down where it's starting," said Posluszny. "I will
not retire until I find out what this is." Police say they've consulted with many experts and they're running out of options.
"Everything we can rule out, we are ruling out, and we're almost at a loss right now," said Warehime. "We need some help."
"Whatever it is there's a scientific explanation," said Johns Hopkins University Physicist Dr. Peter Armitage, who reviewed
the video tape evidence and went to the neighborhood where it's happening to see if he could find any possible causes.
Armitage says more evidence is needed before he can form a scientific conclusion. "Right now it's hard to say the phenomenon
is definitely occurring though," said Armitage. "It's not some people with creative imaginations that's for sure. When there's
repeated eyewitnesses, and then there's something on tape like this, you really have to pay attention." For now, neighbors
like Bonnie Friedman and Elaine O'Mansky say their quality of life depends on whether this mystery is solved. "We would like
it to stop," said O'Mansky. "You go to sleep at night just wondering in the back of your mind, 'Is it going to happen
again?" Friedman agrees. "We even said maybe it's aliens. We're at the point where we'll listen to anyone's theory. We just
need to stop it because my homeowners need to sleep." Police say they will release more information about the case Tuesday
afternoon. http://wjz.com/local/baltimore.county.mystery.2.710503.html
APRIL 16, 2008 - INDIANA:
Mysterious Lights, Boom Baffle Residents, Authorities : Bright Lights, Loud Boom Reported In 2 Indiana Counties-- Strange sights and sounds
filled the nighttime sky in Howard and Tipton counties late Wednesday night, leaving residents
and authorities wondering what they had seen and heard. Reports of lights in the sky, crashes
and vibrations on the ground baffled residents, who began calling authorities right after the rumblings at about 10:30 p.m.
Calls flooded dispatch centers and 6News from people concerned that what they had seen and heard
might have been a crashing plane, a meteorite or something else. Many said the light display was
followed by an explosion -- a boom that shook their homes. A slight metallic smell was reported in Kokomo shortly after the
incident. Crews scoured a field near U.S. 31 and County Road 300 North in Tipton County, but
found nothing, 6News' Derrik Thomas reported. "I had heard the boom. It kind of woke me up," said veterinarian
Dr. Jack Hughes. "It was louder than anything I'd heard before. You would think a sonic boom from a jet, or something like
that. This was big." Hughes' clinic is near the area crews searched for any sign of debris.
Indiana State Police and local sheriff's departments dispatched at least 50 emergency responders to the scene. "We had civilians report things falling from the sky, almost consistent with something like flares or sparks,"
said ISP Sgt. Jeremy Kelly. "Also, very consistent with a meteor shower. If we had to guess what it was, that's what we would
say." David McDonald said he was startled by what he thought was someone shooting a gun behind
his house. "It was totally eerie. What could make that kind of a noise and justify that kind
of a response?" McDonald said. The Federal Aviation Administration said early Thursday that
there were no reports of missing planes. No debris was found. http://www.theindychannel.com/news/15907638/detail.html
June 4, 2007 -- EXETER, NEW HAMPSHIRE - After people called 911 to
report hearing explosions, emergency officials initially thought there had been underground methane gas blasts. But it turns
out that New Hampshire actually had three small earthquakes over the weekend. The tremors caused no damage or injuries. The
state Emergency Management Agency said the quakes were felt Saturday night and Sunday afternoon in the Portsmouth-Exeter area.
The U.S. Geological Survey listed two of the quakes as magnitudes 1.4 and 1.9. A magnitude for the third quake was not available.
Initially, officials investigated whether the sounds and tremors were caused by underground methane gas explosions, and the
naturally occurring gas was found escaping from the ground in Portsmouth on Saturday. However, authorities were able to rule
that out as the cause, Assistant Fire Chief Steven Achilles said. He said the methane gas discovery was either a coincidence
or a result of the tremors. New Hampshire experiences an average of three to four earthquakes per year, most of them so minor
they aren't even felt, said Jim Van Dongen, spokesman for the state Office of Emergency Management. http://www.comcast.net/news/national/index.jsp?cat=DOMESTIC&fn=/2007/06/04/680124.html&cvqh=itn_earthquakes
May 14, 2007 - TENNESSEE -- Dozens of people in Knox County woke up to
some rumbling this morning and investigators are still working to figure out what it was. Dozens of calls flooded central
dispatch at about 1:15am, mostly from two neighborhoods off Northshore Drive in West Knoxville; Admiral's Landing and Northshore
Landing. Many people tell us they woke up to loud rumbling and thought there were animals or prowlers in their basements or
attics. Others thought there was some sort of explosion shaking the ground. J.R. Andrews lives in Admiral's Landing and says
it woke his entire family up and they all ran outside to see what was going on. "Half of our neighborhood had come outside
and there was these constant shakes in the ground, constant thud. It felt like some type of missile attack," he said. "It
wasn't an earthquake, I've been through an earthquake." KUB not reporting any problems in the area and so far, there has been
no reports of a possible earthquake. http://www.volunteertv.com/home/headlines/7491652.html
Mar. 14, 2007 --Mysterious Explosion Sounds in Colorado Springs Sound disturbs
neigbors Tuesday night --Residents of a central Colorado Springs neighborhood say they've been rudely awakened the
past few weeks, by a series of explosive sounds which seem to be growing louder each time. "I didn't
hear it," says Lisa Gostnell, who was asleep at the time. "But my husband did. he looked out, and there were a lot of
cop cars and people outside their houses--so it must have been pretty loud." Neighbors around Sausalito
Drive, west of the Colorado Springs Country Club, heard the latest noise Tuesday around 11 p.m. They say it was loud
enough to shake homes. Some neighbors left their homes, and went out on the street to see if they could see anything.
Some saw a cloud of smoke; others saw a flash of light--but still no clues to the source of the mysterious explosion.
Residents say it's the third explosion in as many weeks--all occurring just before midnight. "The
first one was in the back of the house," explains resident Terry Harrison. "It shook the house, it was loud. The
second one, there was a ball of light that went through the house here." She says her dog hid when he heard the
sound. The mystery deepens after listening to resident Rex Rudy. "About an hour before (Tuesday's
noise), we heard a shooting-type of firework. It was really loud, going over our houses. It sounded like a pop
bottle rocket, but louder. It sounded like a meteor or something." Police are investigating,
and say they've found no evidence so far to explain the noises. A raised area bordering part of the neighborhood is
an old coal mining shaft-- but although it has caused sinkholes in the past, residents say they don't believe it's related
to the explosions. Whether it's someone's prank--or something more serious--remains unknown. http://www.krdotv.com/story.cfm?nav=news&storyID=2595
January 2007 -- OXFORD TWP. - Did you hear that? Did someone break the sound barrier, have aliens landed
on the corner of Drahner and Coats roads, or is Detroit Tiger Joel Zumaya lobbing snowballs at the front door? Well, don't
start the "X-Files" theme just yet, as there seems to be a scientific explanation behind why residents in four counties said
they heard loud booms and bangs Thursday night. In what is being explained as a possible weather phenomenon involving a drop
in temperatures, officers and sheriff's deputies in Oakland, Genesee, Lapeer and Shiawassee counties were dispatched to several
locations to investigate suspicious noises in neighborhoods. Oxford Township police dispatcher James Sommers said the department
received eight calls between 8:32 and 11:30 p.m. from residents, complaining about the "explosions." Typically, he said, it
may get one or two complaints about bangs during the time of year when fi reworks might be set off. But this wasn't a case
of someone setting off bottle rockets, at least not as far as police could tell, he said. "We just couldn't figure it out,"
Sommers said. Well, Greg Smith, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service forecast office in White Lake Township said
there is a reasonable explanation why so many people were hearing these "explosions." Smith said rapidly dropping temperatures
could have created a stable layer in the atmosphere called a temperature inversion. That temperature inversion will trap sound
waves close to the surface of Earth. Those sound waves, when dispersed, are forced to move horizontally from their source,
instead of upward and horizontally, he said. The weather office monitored the many calls from residents in the four counties
between 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., Smith said. "So that may have caused what people were hearing," he said. "It has occurred before,
when people hear sonic booms and the sound waves just got trapped." While Smith admitted he didn't know the origin of the
booms and bangs, he did say sound waves can travel as far as 50 miles from their source. "So it was not directly caused by
the weather, but indirectly," he said. And since sound waves can't talk, many people were frightened by the noises, which
some claimed sounded as if something had hit their homes. Lapeer County Sheriff's deputies said cars were dispatched just
after 10:15 p.m. to check on neighborhoods in North Branch Township and Arcadia Township. Not finding footprints or anything
suspicious, deputies said they figured someone was just shooting a gun in the area. Sommers said most of their calls were
from people living in the township, especially off Drahner, Davison Lake and Baldwin roads. "A person up on Davison Lake Road
said it shook his house," he said. "One lady described it as sounding like someone was banging with both fists on her door."
http://www.theoaklandpress.com/stories/012707/loc_2007012725.shtml
April 27, 2006 - San Deigo, CA - A group of local scientists has uncovered some clues to the source of
a mysterious disturbance that rattled San Diego County on the morning of April 4, shaking windows, doors and bookcases from
the coast to the mountains. The scientists, based at Scripps Institution
of Oceanography in La Jolla, say the disturbance was caused by a sound wave that started over the ocean and petered out over
the Imperial County desert. Using data from more than two dozen seismometers, they traced its likely origin to a spot roughly
120 miles off the San Diego coast. That spot 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
researchers also have charted dozens of similar, if less dramatic, incidents that seem to have originated in the same general
area of the ocean. They aren't sure what caused any of them. Peter Shearer,
a Scripps professor involved in the research, has no idea whether the April 4 disturbance was natural or made by humans. “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,” he said. “But it was certainly a big disturbance in the
atmosphere.” Steve Fiebing, a Coronado-based Navy spokesman, 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
area, also known in military circles as Whiskey 291, covers 1 million square miles and is off-limits to civilian planes and
ships, Fiebing said. “There was no unusual training that would
have caused anything close to what people here felt,” he said. Cmdr.
William Fenick, another local Navy spokesman, said no San Diego-based warships were conducting operations in Warning Area
291 that day. “We don't know at this time where this earthquakelike
sensation came from,” Fenick said. The April 4 disturbance hit San Diego County shortly before 9 a.m. A quake was
quickly eliminated as the cause, leaving a mystery that has been the source of three weeks of speculation from Pacific Beach
to Lakeside to the Internet. 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. It was picked up by more than two dozen seismometers in San Diego and eastern Riverside counties, the researchers
said. According to data analyzed by the scientists, the wave was felt
on San Nicolas Island, northwest of San Clemente Island, at 8:40 a.m. It hit Solana Beach at 8:46 a.m., the western edge of
the Cleveland National Forest at 8:47.30 and the eastern side of the Salton Sea at 8:53 a.m. From there, it appears to have
dissipated. Elizabeth Cochran, the lead researcher on the project, said
the wave moved at 320 meters per second, roughly the speed that sound travels through the air. Its velocity was too slow to
be that of an earthquake, she said. Cochran, a postdoctoral researcher
in the geophysics and planetary physics department, said the only explanation is that the wave was traveling through the atmosphere,
not through the ground. At each location, the wave could be felt for roughly 10 seconds, she said. Several
months before the April 4 incident, the team had begun studying other nonquake disturbances that were registering on San Diego
County seismometers, including 76 that apparently originated in that same general area of the ocean in 2003. Shearer said
he and his colleagues figured that some of those disturbances surely must have come from offshore military exercises. The researchers haven't been able to determine whether the April 4 wave was more powerful
than the earlier ones or whether it simply felt that way because of atmospheric conditions. If
the disturbance was caused by the military, no one has owned up to it. The Navy and Marines say none of their planes were
flying at supersonic speeds that morning. “I'm told that a sonic
boom would not cover that distance at all,” said Fiebing, the Navy spokesman. The Navy uses Warning Area 291 for a wide
range of training, including large-scale ship maneuvers and battle exercises, but Fiebing and Fenick said they were unaware
of any such training April 4 that would have caused such a disturbance. Authorities
have said a meteor probably wasn't the cause because it would have been noticed by the scientific community. The American
Meteor Society reported no fireball sightings over Southern California on that day. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20060427-9999-1n27boom.html
April 23, 2006 - San Diego, CA - Phenomena produce theories, but no answers. Life can serve up a good mystery every once
in a while. Weird things happen that defy explanation, that make us wonder how much we really know about the world. Something of the sort happened in San Diego County shortly before 9 a.m. Tuesday,
April 4, and so far no one has come forward with an explanation. Whatever
it was, it caused a woman's bed to shake in Lakeside. It created waves in a backyard pool in Carmel Valley. It set off car
alarms in Kearny Mesa and rattled windows from Mission Beach to Poway to Vista. At various spots throughout the county, people
reported a rumbling sound or a booming noise. Scientists insist
it wasn't an earthquake. The Federal Aviation Administration has no record of any planes producing a sonic boom by breaking
the sound barrier. Camp Pendleton officials say no activities
on the Marine base could have created such a disturbance. There were no large explosions in San Diego County that day, and
no meteor fireballs were reported in the sky that morning. What
was it, then? Maybe it was the same thing that caused a strange
disturbance in Mississippi on April 7, when the locals heard a loud boom that rattled windows all over Jackson County, throwing
emergency workers “into a tizzy,” said Butch Loper, Jackson County's civil defense director. Authorities in that
state still don't have a clue as to the cause. Nor, to this day,
can anyone explain what was behind similar episodes in Maine two months ago, or Alabama three months ago, or North Carolina
four months ago. In each of those cases – as well as in other incidents around the nation over the years – residents
reported hearing windows rattle and feeling floors shake even though no earthquake was detected. There's almost certainly a simple, unromantic, “Aha!”-type explanation for each of these odd occurrences,
something that everyone has overlooked for whatever combination of reasons. But who knows? Maybe we're not being told everything. Maybe
the Earth still does things that present-day humanity doesn't understand. The morning of April 4 was cloudy in San Diego County, with rain in some areas and temperatures in the low to mid-60s.
In Lakeside, Judi Mitchell, an emergency medical technician who works the night shift at a hospital, had returned to her home
on Lakeshore Drive and was just about to fall asleep. It was 9 a.m., give or take a few minutes. Suddenly, the earth started to vibrate. “The windows
shook; my bed moved,” she said. “It moved my bookcase.” The rattling lasted a few seconds. Mitchell, 44, has lived in East County all her life and considers herself an expert
at judging the size of an earthquake. She quickly guessed this one was a 4.5 on the Richter scale. But to the astonishment of everyone, a quake wasn't the culprit. Within hours, both the U.S. Geological Survey in Pasadena
and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla issued statements saying no earthquake had been detected. Last week, USGS spokeswoman Stephanie Hanna said the agency stands by its initial
conclusion. “No, it wasn't an earthquake,” she said.
“We haven't changed our minds about that.” By noon
on the day of the incident, The San Diego Union-Tribune was being inundated with e-mails from people wondering
what could have caused the strange tremors. “My garage door
is double steel and it weighs about 500 lbs.,” a man in University City wrote. “It was rattling back and forth
like a leaf in the wind for about 3 or 4 seconds.” A Mission
Beach resident compared the sensation to “somewhere in between an explosion and an earthquake.” A woman in Carmel
Valley noted that the rattling was very distressing to her cats. In recent days, the Union-Tribune has tried to get to the bottom of this mystery. Our efforts haven't met
with much success. Was it a sonic boom? If so, it didn't come
from any aircraft at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, Maj. Jason Johnston said. And it didn't come from any Navy planes in
San Diego, said Cmdr. Jack Hanzlik, a Coronado-based spokesman for the Naval Air Forces. “There were no Navy aircraft operating in this area during that time capable of flying at transonic speed,”
he said. Officials with the California National Guard and several
Air Force bases also insisted their planes weren't the culprit, as did a Colorado-based spokesman for the North American Aerospace
Defense Command. If a plane had been traveling over San Diego
County at supersonic speeds, the Federal Aviation Administration would have picked it up on radar, said Cheryl Jones, the
FAA's San Diego-based liaison to the Marine Corps. Jones checked
with FAAcontrol centers in Palmdale and San Diego, which monitor 180,000 square miles covering Southern California,
southern Nevada and western Arizona. The agency has no records of any plane, military or civilian, breaking the sound barrier
on the morning of April 4, she said. Under federal law, Jones
added, the military can fly at supersonic speeds only in certain restricted areas, three of which exist in Southern California.
One is 150 miles to the north of San Diego, the second is 220 miles to the east and the third is 27 miles off the coast. The
odds of a plane in any of those areas creating a sonic boom that could be felt all over San Diego County are virtually nonexistent,
she said. Could some sort of rocket be the cause? A spokeswoman
at Vandenberg Air Force Base, 60 miles north of Santa Barbara, said the base didn't launch any rockets that day. Neither did
NASA, a spokesman for that agency said. Was it a meteor? Unlikely,
said Ed Beshore, a researcher at the University of Arizona's NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey, which monitors asteroids and
other heavenly objects. Every few months, a meteor enters Earth's
atmosphere and produces an “airburst” that can cause a disturbance on the ground, Beshore said. In one recent
case, an airburst over the Mediterranean Sea broke the windows on a ship, he said. In the most extreme incident ever recorded,
a 1908 airburst over Siberia flattened trees for thousands of miles. But an airburst powerful enough to cause tremors all over San Diego County would have been noticed by scientists, Beshore
said. And the American Meteor Society reported no fireball sightings over California on April 4. A spokeswoman for Camp Pendleton scoffed at speculation that some sort of Marine mortar training exercise at the base
might have caused the countywide rumbling. “It was not us,” 2nd Lt. Lori Miller stated flatly. Miller was home in Vista on the morning of April 4 when her windows began to rattle. There is no possible way, she
said, that a Pendleton training exercise could have caused a sensation like that. Two months before the San Diego incident, Robert Higgins, the emergency management director of Somerset County, Maine,
was confronted with a nearly identical set of puzzling circumstances. In February, panicked residents in a 15-mile radius
reported feeling earthquakelike tremors. Authorities quickly ruled out an earthquake, explosion or industrial accident. “I've called it the mystery of Somerset County,” Higgins said in
a telephone interview last week. He still hasn't figured out the cause. “I'm not done with it,” Higgins said. “I don't forget.” Then there was the incident in Mobile, Ala., on Jan. 19, when residents in two counties reported hearing what sounded
like an explosion and feeling “quakelike tremors,” according to news reports. To this day, no one is certain of
the cause. By process of elimination, authorities have settled on the sonic-boom theory, even though no branch of the military
has owned up to it. There have been other similar unexplained
events over the past few years. Something of the sort happened in Wilmington, N.C., on Dec. 20, 2005; Winston-Salem, N.C.,
on March 5, 2005; Charleston, S.C., on Aug. 1, 2003; and Pensacola, Fla., on Jan. 13, 2003. “The large boom that shook walls and windows from Century to Milton on Monday remains a mystery, and probably
will stay that way,” a reporter for the Pensacola News Journal wrote after the Jan. 13 episode. On those occasions when a logical explanation is wanting, it's sometimes necessary
to consult that archive of wisdom otherwise known as the Internet. Among
bloggers and Web-based conspiracy theorists, one of the leading explanations for the San Diego disturbance is that the military
is testing a top-secret spy plane called the Aurora, which supposedly can travel several times the speed of sound. “Sir, I've never even heard of that plane before,” an Air Force
spokeswoman in Virginia responded when asked about the possibility. Even
UFO experts are baffled by what happened in San Diego. Asked whether a flying saucer might have caused such an event, Peter
Davenport of the Seattle-based National UFO Reporting Center said, “Probably not.” “UFOs almost never generate sonic booms or shock waves,” he added. “They accelerate so rapidly that
they leave a vacuum in the sky, much the way lightning does.” What
happened in San Diego on April 4 seems destined to remain one of life's little mysteries, as inexplicable as those Bigfoot
sightings in the Pacific Northwest. Mitchell, the Lakeside hospital
worker, remains convinced that an earthquake was the culprit, regardless of what the experts say. The tremors were too strong,
she said, too violent to be anything else. “The earth actually
moved,” she said. “You could feel it. If it moved my bed, it moved the earth.” If anyone out there has any answers, would you please be kind enough to share them with the rest of us? A lot of folks
are really curious. http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060423/news_1n23bigboom.html
April 8, 2006 -- Mysterious boom shakes
Jackson County, Mississippi. People here haven't had anything rattle their world
much since Katrina. But Friday morning, when "an extremely loud boom" shot through the air, people filed out of businesses
to look up, a deputy climbed onto the roof of the courthouse scanning the horizon for plumes and the county civil defense
director rushed home from Biloxi. The boom occurred at about 9:30 a.m. and shook windows of businesses along U.S. 90, trailers
near the beach, industry along the river and was heard miles away in Hurley. Don Stewart, chief deputy with the sheriff's
department, was stopped at a traffic light on Old Mobile Highway when it hit. "I was in a Ford Expedition, that's a big vehicle,
and it felt like someone rear-ended me," Stewart said. "I got out and looked. There was no vehicle behind me. I knew I wasn't
going crazy." Investigators and deputies evacuated the office trailers at the courthouse, and Maj. Mike Robichaux climbed
on the roof to try and spot any source of the noise. Butch Loper, county civil defense director, tried to work it by phone
as he rushed back to Jackson County. He was flooded with calls. His people contacted the usual suspects, the chemical plants,
the refinery and the gas pipeline near Industrial Road. All reported nothing. Signal International, the industry that repairs
oil rigs along the Pascagoula River, checked the rigs to make sure nothing had exploded, said one employee. Inside the Northrop
Grumman shipyard, a supervisor of shipbuilding employees said it sounded like someone had fallen off the roof. Too loud to
be a transformer and too widespread to be a train, it was heard along Martin Bluff Road in Gautier. Some people reported a
second boom; others reported a sulfur smell. By midday, Loper was satisfied it wasn't an industrial explosion. Keesler Air
Force Base, the Air National Guard at the state level and Eglin Air Force Base near Pensacola reported they had no planes
flying in the area. A man in downtown Moss Point said he missed the boom on Friday, but claimed to have seen evidence of military
jets dog-fighting at about 20,000 to 30,000 feet over the Gulf on Thursday. On the ground Friday, Loper said he had patrol
cars reporting from several law enforcement agencies. "We put full patrol out and found nothing," he said, so he favors the
sonic boom theory. He said the jets don't mean to create the boom, but it happens sometimes when they make a tight turn. "I
know we can't find a trace of anything else," he said. http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/local/14294474.htm
April 7, 2006 - Central California -- Mysterious
Boom. Yesterday about 3:12p.m. here in Central California, there was a huge BOOM noise, the feeling like a 4.0+ earthquake
(single jolt, not rolling) and the windows rattled like crazy, all at once. Only thing is, according to the USGS, there was
no earthquake at that time, or even a local quarry explosion (which they also list). http://www.foxvox.org/
April 4, 2006 - San Diego, CA - A mysterious
booming sound rocked the region Tuesday morning, causing a flurry of phone calls to authorities who couldn't explain the cause.
"It sounded like someone was dropping a 500-pound bomb," said Sgt. J.T. Faulkner at the Poway Sheriff's Station. Officials
said there was no definite evidence to link the blast about 8:55 a.m. to atmospheric conditions, earthquakes, sonic booms
or explosions from artillery training at Camp Pendleton.
"We really don't have anything to confirm the cause," said Stephen Rea, emergency services coordinator for San Diego County's
Office of Emergency Services. "There was no damage throughout the county." The U.S. Geological Survey didn't register anything
in the immediate area. "We felt something shake our building," said Lt. Jim Bolwerk at the sheriff's communication center
in Kearny Mesa, where dispatchers immediately fielded phone calls from concerned residents. Cpl. K.T. Tran, spokesman for
Camp Pendleton north of Oceanside, said he didn't feel any shaking in his building. The base started training at 6 a.m. with
81mm mortars that can sometimes be heard up to 50 miles away. "I felt it at my home, University City," said forecaster Philip
Gonsalves of the National Weather Service. "All that happened was that my windows rattled. There's a lot of speculation (about
the cause), but that's all it is." http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/04/05/news/sandiego/10_41_384_4_06.txt
April 4, 2006 - San Diego, CA - It wasn’t
an earthquake, and it wasn’t Marine Corps artillery practice. No one knows for sure what it was, but it rattled buildings
and shook windows around San Diego County this morning [4/4/06]. The mysterious boom was heard or felt about 8:45 a.m. The
county Sheriff and police departments around the area say they got dozens of calls asking what it was, but they didn’t
know either. The Geological Survey says there were no earthquakes at the time and Camp Pendleton says, although exercises
are going on, there were no explosions when the boom was heard. Officials at Marine Air Station Miramar say there were no
flight operations in the area that could have caused a sonic boom. That leaves a sonic boom caused by a high-flying aircraft
operating under high security, possibly from Edwards Air Force Base. Experts say that is the most likely explanation. http://sandiegoblog.com/archives/2006/04/05/or-it-could-have-just-been-a-house-party/
A mysterious boom was felt across San Diego county today. It rocked buildings,
but it doesn't appear to have been an earthquake. http://www.kusi.com/news/local/2577691.html
Residents Throughout County Hear Booms, Rattling-- San Diego County
residents heard mysterious booms and felt some rattling Tuesday morning, 10News reported. Residents from all over,
including Ramona, called police and 10News to report the loud noises, which some speculated was sonic booms or an earthquake.
But no measurable seismic activity was recorded in San Diego County Tuesday morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey,
and Navy and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar officials had no reports of a sonic boom occurring Tuesday. However, Marines
at Camp Pendleton were conducting mortar training Tuesday morning. No damage or injuries were reported. http://www.10news.com/news/8464244/detail.html?rss=sand&psp=news
March 10, 2006 - RICHMOND, VA -- Va. Tech will study causes of quakes --
Prompted by minor earthquakes west of Richmond and the microquakes that rattled the city in 2004, scientists hope to catch
central Virginia in motion with a new network of seismic equipment. Two quakes in 2003, including one of magnitude 4.5, a
lesser temblor in 2004 and the "booms" that shook Richmond's North Side that fall convinced the Virginia Tech Seismological
Observatory's director that he needs to know more about underground activity in central Virginia. "If we can actually
catch these things in the act . . . we'll begin to know what's going on, in terms of the frequency and how big they are,"
said Martin Chapman, who heads the Virginia Tech earthquake center. Once alerted to a spate of temblors, seismologists could
then bring in additional equipment to spot future movement, he added. The new network involves placing a monitor in Richmond,
which hasn't had seismic equipment for more than 20 years since the U.S. Geological Service transferred monitors to earthquake-prone
California, according to Benjamin Johnson, the city's emergency management coordinator. Virginia Tech's seismic network,
part of the Advance National Seismic System, includes equipment at the seismology center in Blacksburg and in Giles County,
and in Forest Hill and Princeton in West Virginia. Federal officials also have equipment in Blacksburg. The sensors feed data
to Virginia Tech and is shared with the U.S. Geological Survey and other federal agencies. The network is being expanded
to focus on central Virginia because of the area's increased seismic activity over the past few years. A short-period sensor
was moved from Walker Mountain near Wytheville in December to Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke. A more
sophisticated broadband station, a three-piece, $30,000 seismometer system that can more fully characterize the ground motion
at greater distance, has been installed at the University of Richmond. It was online just in time to catch the 7.4 magnitude
quake on Feb. 23 that shook Mozambique, more than 8,000 miles away from the campus. The new equipment at UR was paid
for by a federal grant and reviewed by the Virginia Department of Emergency Management and the federal Department of Homeland
Security, Johnson said. Although it belongs to the city, the system will be maintained by Chapman's staff and may be used
for academic purposes. In addition, Chapman hopes to install equipment at the J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College
campus in Goochland County and seeks funding to install another monitor elsewhere in central Virginia. Equipment was
placed in Richmond because of the mysterious "booms" that rocked the Ginter Park neighborhood. At the time of the shaking,
in the fall of 2004, little was known about these microquakes, but there had been a few recent reports in eastern Henrico
County and earlier in the area in the winter of 1986-87. Now, Chapman says it appears that the microquakes occur in
episodes that can last just a few days or even weeks. The epicenter for these swarms seems to be underneath Confederate
Gen. A.P. Hill's statue and grave at the center of the intersection of Laburnum Avenue and Hermitage Road, "as best I
can tell," he said. Although some of the booms were blamed on two teens, later convicted, who set off homemade explosive
devices, Chapman said he believes that some were microquakes so minor that they wouldn't register on monitors far away.
"If we're going to monitor these things and be able to record these little bumps, these little tiny earthquakes like that,
we have to be in town," he said. Chapman said he thinks the granite and other hard rock underneath the city is strained
by some unknown factor, possibly groundwater fluctuations, triggering the shaking. He hopes the new monitors will shed some
light on the cause. "It's a curious phenomenon, and I'd like to know a lot more about it," he said. Virginia has
had more than 160 earthquakes in the past three decades, but only about a sixth of them were felt. The state's biggest earthquake,
a magnitude 5.8 temblor in Giles County, came in 1897 and was felt in 12 states. Elsewhere in central Virginia, smaller earthquakes
that cause little or no damage are felt each year or so. What worries Chapman is a repeat of the 4.5 magnitude earthquake
that struck Dec. 9, 2003, centered in Goochland. That quake was felt locally and in New York. "That's just a little
taste of what's liable to happen at some point in the not-so-distant future. There's no reason why a much bigger earthquake
couldn't happen there," Chapman said. "I don't know if there's going to be 'the big one,' but if anything starts to
happen . . . we want to be in front of it and get the information out there," the city's Johnson said. "If you get the information
a half a day late, it doesn't allow you to get ready or prepare." http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1137834630032
February 25, 2006 --SKOWHEGAN, MAINE -- EARTH
SHAKING REPORTS POUR IN http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/2473364.shtml Reports
continued to pour in Friday from residents who said they experienced what appeared to be earthquake tremors at about 10 a.m.
Thursday morning. Although state officials said no seismic experience was recorded on any of the instruments in Maine
or New England, Somerset County's Emergency Management Director Robert Higgins Sr. said he still aims to get to the bottom
of the mystery. Higgins said the number and validity of reports received Thursday and Friday -- in addition to similar
reports last Friday in Solon -- indicate Thursday's event was significant and not just a sonic boom. "Something was wrong,"
Higgins said. "What bothers me is that it didn't show up on any of the seismic equipment. Those overseas (jet) flights are
up 24,000 to 30,000 feet. That wasn't it. The incidents covered such a large area of such significance, if it didn't show,
why didn't it?" On Thursday, at least a dozen residents reported tremors within a 15-mile radius between Anson, Madison,
Skowhegan and Norridgewock. On Friday, however, the calls about Thursday's incident came from further away -- including Winslow,
Freedom, Clinton and Johnson Flats Road near the Burnham-Pittsfield town line. Bill Jefferson, a customs official at
Coburn Gore, said he was at his North Pond Road in Winslow Thursday, working on his computer, when he heard and felt the earth
shaking. "My dogs went berserk," Jefferson said. "I've experienced an earthquake before, and this was an earthquake."
Lawrence Tilton on Dudley Corner Road is just as sure it wasn't an earthquake. He said he was going to his mailbox Thursday
when the earth shook and he saw jets going overhead: "It was a sonic boom. Mystery solved." Sheila Gilbert on Johnson
Flats Road, said the earth movement "shook my whole home; it rattled the whole trailer." Margaret LaRochelle, U.S. Route 2
Norridgewock near My Cousin's Place, said the shaking and thud scared her dogs and her daughter. Bob Poulin, at a mobile
home park in Clinton near Galusha's store said his wind chimes started shaking and he turned on his scanner to see what was
happening: "It was quite a shake." Most of the callers said they were glad to read in Friday's Sentinel
that they were not alone in their experience. "I heard the noise and I thought it was an accident out front...
I'm glad I wasn't the only one," said Victoria Bowring of Clinton. Katherine Waite, an American living in Munich, Germany,
wrote in an e-mail that she read the Sentinel article and had an explanation. She said she belongs to an active Web forum
that recently discussed "big boom noises." She said some of the members are engineers from the aerospace industry and they
said that if military jets are scrambled, they break the sound barrier at a lower altitude than normal, which could cause
a sonic boom. Attempts to reach a military official for a response were unsuccessful.
January 19, 2006: NBC - WPMI - MOBILE, AL -- It wasn't an earthquake,
but it felt like it to many of you. What sounded and felt like an intense explosion rocked much of the local area around
2:30 Thursday afternoon, shaking homes and businesses and shaking up a lot of residents. "I heard a shaking and a rattling,”
said Lana Cook, who experienced the boom in her home off Moffet Road. "It was like someone pounding with their fists."
The boom created some scary moments for residents throughout much of the local area, who experienced what sounded and felt
like an explosion. "This was hard, loud and continuous,” Cook added. Mobile County's Emergency Management
Agency says crews were dispatched to check for any type of explosion or industrial accident. They say they're looking at the
incident as most likely a sonic boom whose intensity was amplified by local weather conditions. Chris Norton was at work at
a warehouse off Moffett Road when he felt the boom. “I kind of felt like the walls had expanded,” Norton said.
“You could feel the walls and doors sort of blow open. It was pretty intense." For the time being, the exact cause remains
unknown. The National Earthquake Information Center in Colorado registered no unusual activity, and officials at Eglin Air
Force Base say they had no high-speed flights that would have caused a sonic boom. No injuries or structural damage was
reported after this afternoon's boom. http://www.wpmi.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=4B3F4225-1C4A-450B-82A2-B32D973A2C4D
December 21, 2005: WRAL-TV
- CAROLINA BEACH, N.C. -- Carolina Beach authorities were investigating reports of three loud booms in the area Tuesday.
Valita Quattlebaum, a public information officer for Carolina Beach, said that about 4:20 p.m., she heard a loud boom and
felt the building she was in shake. Numerous other residents and professionals in the area also called police reporting the
same. Quattlebaum said that Tuesday afternoon she was unaware of what may have caused the booms, but officials were looking
at causes ranging from a plane flying too low to the ground to an earthquake. “We are making phone calls to the
local weather stations and to the National Weather Service, but we don’t have any confirmations,” Quattlebaum
said. The U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Center said it had not record of an earthquake along
the North Carolina coast and local police that there were no scheduled activities in the area that would have
cause the booms or buildings to shake. Officials said no reports had been received of injuries or structural damage. http://www.wral.com/news/5592178/detail.html
December 21, 2005: Wilmington,
N.C. Star - Mysterious booms lead to surge of speculation -- Tim
McKinney knows for sure what caused the blasts – the Seneca Guns, he said. He’s heard the mysterious coastal rumblings
a thousand times, but never with the intensity he did Tuesday while working on the set of One Tree Hill in downtown Wilmington.“That’s
the strongest I’ve ever felt it in my life,” he said. Something certainly caused a series of thunderous booms
about 4 p.m. that sent some hurrying to call 911 and others looking skyward for answers. Curtis Reeves, who lives near Belville,
said he initially feared an explosion at the Military Ocean Terminal at Sunny Point, near Southport. “It felt
like an earthquake,” he said. “It shook every house in this neighborhood.” But officials reported no problems
at the ammunition depot or elsewhere. And with nary a cloud in the sky, the booms weren’t weather related, said Ron
Steve, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wilmington. Steve said he spoke to the U.S. Geological Survey,
which said there had been no seismic activity in the area. The weather service radar did, however, pick up signs of
“chaff” off the coast of New Hanover and Brunswick counties, he said. Chaff is like metal confetti
that military fighters emit to trick radar-seeking missiles, he said. It’s possible that jets off the coast broke the
sound barrier as part of a military exercise. The public relations office at Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station in
Havelock was unable to confirm by press time if Marines were on exercises nearby. Some people reported seeing military planes
and helicopters flying in the area after the booms. But McKinney said the sound came from the ground, blaming the mysterious
booms that have been reported in the area for centuries. The name, “Seneca Guns,” comes from a similar phenomenon
in New York and Connecticut. Legend has it that the Seneca Indians are getting their revenge with the guns that Europeans
used to displace them. More scientific explanations say the boom of the guns comes from earthquakes, material falling
off the continental shelf, or pockets of hot air exploding like balloons. http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051221/NEWS/51221005/0/sports
December 16, 2005: WKRG-TV
- A mysterious force shook buildings from Pascagoula, Mississippi to Chumuckla, Florida Friday morning, but no one News 5
talked to knows exactly what caused it. Sometime between 9:00 and 9:30 am, a thunderous sound rumbled
through the Gulf Coast. Not everyone felt it, but those who did all described it in much the same way. Ruthstein
Woods in Eight Mile said, "I was laying in the bed watching TV and all of a sudden, it was like big boom, like the ceiling
or something was like falling. I jumped up and ran and looked, and I looked outside, but I didn't see anything. It was like
real, real shaking and stuff." Donny George in Midtown felt it, too. "It was more like a sonic boom. I questioned whether
or not the space shuttle had come back into the atmosphere, because I'm from Florida. And when the space shuttle comes in
there, it makes a sonic boom, rattles the windows," said George. He added, "It rattled the building, rattled the windows.
I thought somebody had hit our building." It shook Harvey Smith as well. "I just heard a loud boom, I thought maybe
some kind of sonic boom or something like an airplane breaking the sound barrier, or...but it shook my house. I still don't
know what it was." People from as far away as Pascagoula, Mississippi to Flomaton, Alabama to Chumuckla, Florida called
News 5 to tell us they heard and felt something. But because not everyone felt it, speculation rose from the ground to the
air. Some suspected military aircraft causing sonic booms by breaking the sound barrier. But News 5 was unable to confirm
whether it was a jet. So, the mystery and the speculation continue. http://www.wkrg.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WKRG%2FMGArticle%2FKRG_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1128768768378&path=%21news%21local
November 22, 2005: ISRAEL
- NetNews.com Mysterious 'booms' rattle homes - Residents report hearing loud blasts in different parts of country, claim their homes shook as result;
IDF says in response no unusual military activity that may have caused blasts detected, Seismology Institute says no earthquakes
recorded; Rita from Herzliya: I don’t buy it. They should just tell us what is causing these shockwaves and blasts.
Just three weeks after dozens of readers from across Israel told Ynet about unusually loud
'booms' and tremors throughout the night, residents again reported hearing loud boom-like sounds in different parts of the
country Tuesday, mainly in coastal regions, claiming their homes shook as a result. Police officials confirmed people
reported they heard “explosions,” but added that the source remains unknown. The IDF said in response that
no unusual military activity that may have caused the “explosions” was detected, and the Seismology Institute
said no earthquakes were recorded. Rita, a resident of Herzliya in central Israel, said, “Suddenly the entire house
began to shake; even our cat felt it and began to act in a peculiar manner. It lasted for a few seconds. It was as if someone
was forcefully rattling the home’s windows and doors.” 'I don't buy it' However, she said she did not hear any explosions. “The rumbling was similar to
last month’s incident, but then it took place at nighttime and we were able to hear the blasts, which were strong,”
she said. “Last time they said it was ultra-sonic booms from planes that flew over the Gaza Strip. I don’t buy
it. They should just tell us what is causing these shockwaves and blasts. It is getting a bit scary because we do not know
what the source is.” Most of those who reported of the blasts reside in the Sharon region, in central Israel;
they said the shockwaves came from the direction of the sea. Last month
Ynet readers offered several explanations for the mysterious blasts - from an alien invasion to underground nuclear tests.
The IDF said at the time the blasts may have resulted from a rare combination of IAF activity over Gaza and a unique weather
conditions. An Israel Air Force officer said at the time, “this is an unusual phenomenon in which cold and warm
layers are alternately formed in the air, and the sound waves move like a ping pong ball between the ground and layers.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3173415,00.html
November 5, 2005: UK Guardian
Palestinians hit by sonic boom -- Israel is deploying a terrifying new tactic against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip
by letting loose deafening "sound bombs" that cause widespread fear, induce miscarriages and traumatise children. The removal
of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip opened the way for the military to use air force jets to create dozens of sonic booms
by breaking the sound barrier at low altitude, sending shockwaves across the territory, often at night. Palestinians liken
the sound to an earthquake or huge bomb. They describe the effect as being hit by a wall of air that is painful on the ears,
sometimes causing nosebleeds and "leaving you shaking inside". The Palestinian health ministry says the sonic booms have led
to miscarriages and heart problems. The United Nations has demanded an end to the tactic, saying it causes panic attacks in
children. The shockwaves have also damaged buildings by cracking walls and smashing thousands of windows. "I have never heard
such a loud explosion. I thought it was right over the top of my building," said the owner, Tareq Dayyeh. "Sometimes you hear
the rockets the Israelis fire but this was different. I felt like I was in the middle of a bomb. When I ran out the door I
thought I might find the rest of the street was gone." Over the past week, Israeli jets created 28 sonic booms by flying at
high speed and low altitude over the Gaza Strip, sometimes as little as an hour apart through the night. During five days
in late September, the air force caused 29 sonic booms. A senior Israeli army intelligence source, who the military would
not permit to be named, said the tactic is intended to break civilian support for armed Palestinian groups. "We are trying
to send a message in a way that doesn't harm people. We want to encourage the Palestinian public to do something about the
terror situation," he said. "What are the alternatives? We are not like the terrorists who shoot civilians. We are cautious.
We make sure nobody is really hurt." Yesterday, two medical human rights groups asked the Tel Aviv high court to outlaw the
use of sound bombs on the grounds it amounts to illegal collective punishment and is detrimental to health. "The stress is
phenomenal," said Eyad El Sarraj, a psychologist and director of Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, one of the groups
filing the petition. "The Israelis do it after midnight and then every one or two hours. You try to go to sleep and then there's
another one. When it happens night after night you become exhausted. You get a heightened sense of alert, waiting continuously
for it to happen. People suffer hypertension, fatigue, sleeplessness. "For children, the loud noise means danger. Adults may
know it's only a sound but small children feel threatened. They are crying and clinging to their parents. Afterwards they
are dazed and fearful, waiting for something to happen." The UN Palestinian refugee agency said a majority of the patients
seen at its clinics as a result of the sonic booms were under 16 and suffering from symptoms such as anxiety attacks, bedwetting,
muscle spasms, temporary loss of hearing and breathing difficulties. Although the Israelis say the shockwaves do not cause
casualties, doctors at Gaza's Shifa hospital said the overflights had forced women to miscarry. The number of miscarriages
had increased by 40%, according to Jumaa Saqqa, a surgeon and hospital spokesman. "There were no other symptoms and the rise
happened after the sonic booms. We can see no other explanation. The number of patients admitted to the cardiac care unit
doubled. Some of them proved to have suffered serious harm." Dr Saqqa said one overflight occurred while he was operating.
The Palestinian health ministry estimates the sonic booms have caused at least 20 miscarriages. The UN's Middle East
envoy, Alvaro de Soto, wrote to the Israeli high command this week saying he was "deeply concerned at the impact on children,
particularly infants, of the use of sonic booms". Mr de Soto said he did not accept that the tactic was a legitimate
response to Islamic Jihad and Hamas firing rockets into Israeli towns. "Sonic booms are an indiscriminate instrument, the
use of which punishes the population collectively. We ask therefore that their use be stopped without delay," the letter said.
The military was forced to apologise after one sonic boom was unintentionally heard hundreds of kilometres inside Israel last
week. Maariv newspaper described it as sounding "like a heavy bombardment. The noise that shook the Israeli skies was frightening.
Thousands of citizens leapt in panic from their beds, and many of them placed worried calls to the police and the fire department.
The Tel Aviv and central district police switchboards crashed." http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1607450,00.html
July 22, 2005: MSNBC -
Eerie recording captures sound of tsunami -- Sound from last December's huge tsunami-causing earthquake was picked up by underwater
microphones designed to listen for nuclear explosions. Scientists this week released an audio file of the frighteningly
long-lasting cracks and splits along the Sumatra-Andaman Fault in the Indian Ocean. The spine-tingling hiss and rumble is
an eerie reminder of the devastation and death that is still being tallied in the largest natural disaster in modern times.
At least 200,000 people are thought to have died as a result of the magnitude 9.3 earthquake, the tsunami, and the lack of
food, drinkable water and medical supplies that followed. The audio recording of the quake starts out silent. A low hiss begins
and the intensity builds gradually to a rumbling crescendo. Then it tails off but, frighteningly, builds again in waves as
Earth continues to tremble. The audio file is sped up 10 times to make it easier to hear. As it was recorded, the sound was
at the lower threshold of human hearing, but it could have been noted by someone paying attention. "If you were diving even
hundreds of miles away you could hear this," said study leader Maya Tolstoy of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth
Observatory. "You would hear it as sort of a 'boom.'" http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8670264/
March 8, 2005: Winston-Salem Journal
/ NC / Paul Garber - The mysterious booms that rocked much of downtown Saturday night may remain
forever a mystery. About 8:20 p.m., 911 dispatchers started getting a wave of calls reporting the booms, said Shawn Cline,
the hazardous-materials coordinator for the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Office of Emergency Management. The calls covered
an area of downtown between Glade and Cherry streets, from Brookstown Avenue to the south and West 24th Street to the north,
he said. Cline said that he spent most of yesterday looking at whether a small earthquake or sonic boom might have caused
the noise, but by the end of the day he didn't have a solid answer. There may not be enough earthquake-measuring equipment
in the area to determine whether a small earthquake occurred, said Tyler Clark, the chief geologist for the N.C. Geological
Survey. "This is likely to go down in the history books as a mystery," Clark said. Saturday's booms were about
the 10th such report he has had from the Winston-Salem area in the past five years, Clark said. "These are not anything
new," he said. "They've happened to our state for a long time." There are more active fault lines in the states that
border North Carolina then there are inside the state, he said. "In North Carolina, we sit in the quiet zone," he said.
Because of that, there is not a network of seismic equipment to track local earthquakes. It would be too expensive to track
activity that almost never causes death or destruction here, he said. It's also possible that the noise was a sonic
boom, which is more likely to make the kind of explosive sound reported than an earthquake, Clark said. But a sonic
boom could not have come from a plane leaving or landing at Smith Reynolds Airport because the plane would be going too slow,
said Dave Short, the air traffic manager at the airport. Sonic booms occur when an airplane goes faster than the speed
of sound. Smith Reynolds air-traffic controllers do not track anything above its air space of 12,000 feet, Short said.
City public utilities officials considered the possibility that a methane explosion in a nearby sewer could have caused the
booms but have ruled out that possibility. "If an explosion had happened, there's got to be a release of pressure somewhere,"
said Ron Hargrove, the deputy director for the City-County Utilities Division. There have been no such reports, which would
include such things as blown manhole covers or bubbles in toilet water. Loud noises and vibrations that struck the Konnoak
Hills neighborhood in 1994 turned out to be small earthquakes, the largest of which measured 1.7 on the Richter scale.
December 13, 2004: Associated
Press - Mysterious S.C. booms now heard in N.C. -- 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 and more recently, in North 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. Recently, the booms
have been heard frequently along the coast of North Carolina, particularly around Wilmington. 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 have 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 methane gas explosions on the ocean floor. "I think
that this is going to be a harder one to pin down than the Loch Ness monster," Thacker said. "It really is truly kind of mysterious."
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. "I've heard
all kinds of crazy things," Clark said. "The bottom line is that nobody's been able to come up with an explanation for it."
He discounts the popular idea that the booms are caused by earthquakes. "The problem that we have is that earthquakes,
contrary to popular belief, don't make a whole lot of noise," he said. 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. But Thacker is skeptical of that theory. "I can't perceive of how that could occur
without some kind of cloud," he said. "It defies all logical explanation at this point," Clark said. http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031779656473&path=!localnews&s=1037645509099
December 4, 2004: WhatDoesItMean.com
by Adam Holland - MYSTERIOUS BLASTS IN MASSACHUSETTS -- Looking south from
his home on Curtis Road Tuesday night, Chris Lyons saw the bright flash light up the clouds. About three seconds later came
the boom a deep thump that shook his entire house. From Hudson, N.H., to the Chelmsford line, the eastern half
of Tyngsboro has been rocked with well over a dozen of these mysterious, pulsating booms over the past five weeks, rattling
both windows and nerves. Lyons said he knows a thing or two about explosives. As a youngster, the engineer used
to mess around with M-80s or fashion homemade explosives under proper adult supervision, of course out of black gunpowder
and aluminum piping. "Those are like sparklers compared to what is going on here," Lyons said. "If this were in
a house, there would not be a board left. The house would be pulverized. "Ten sticks of dynamite might not completely
blow up a house," Lyons added. "But that happened that night ... I can't even describe it. For a guy who's not afraid of this
stuff, my God, I felt very intimidated. "All I could think of, to tell you the truth, was my son going to school the
next day, and it was unsettling," Lyons said. All reported incidents have occurred after dark, mostly between 7 and
9 p.m. Nearly all of them have been reported on Mondays and Tuesdays. When the bangs were first heard in late October,
police called the Federal Aviation Administration, thinking they might have been sonic booms from aircraft. They were not.
Residents didn't report the incidents at first, thinking they were related to demolition or construction projects that might
be happening in the area. Blasting permits are only allowed during daytime hours, and none were issued during this time period.
Callers initially reported seeing bright flashes of light in the hills west of the Firehouse Restaurant & Lounge which
is about a half-mile south of the Tyngsboro Bridge and to the east, near the banks of the Merrimack River. Most of the flashes
were white, but other eyewitnesses have reported seeing orange and red flashes. One resident said she saw blue lightning-like
streaks. "I didn't think anything of it," said Jackie Baker, who lives down the road from the Firehouse Restaurant.
"But then, when it shook the house... ." On Nov. 1, police received dozens of calls reporting at least six incidents
between about 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. The Lowell and Chelmsford police departments also investigated similar complaints stemming
from the same incidents. Tyngsboro patrol cars were even in the area during all of the bangs, but officers could
not pinpoint their location. Riding on all-terrain vehicles the next day, other officers searched the expansive woods west
of the Boston University Corporate Education Center campus, where some thought the blasts might have originated. More
booms were heard Nov. 2, Nov. 9, Nov. 23 and Nov. 30. "It was very loud," said Henry Moulton, who lives on Lawrence
Road, just south of the school complex on Norris Road. "Something like a bomb exploding in World War II." "I thought
it was in my back yard," said Moulton's wife, Yvette. "I thought maybe the swimming pool had blown up."
It took nearly 10 minutes for Henry Moulton to get through to the police dispatcher, whose telephone line was flooded with
dozens of similar calls. What is especially baffling is that, to date, no one has reported finding any evidence
of explosions, such as burn marks, splintered wood or rock or other debris. "There's got to be something, somewhere,"
said Ellen Lyons. It would seem unlikely that the blasts are being caused by dynamite or more modern explosives. In
the wake of 9-11, even blasting caps must be painstakingly accounted for, making it nearly impossible to misplace such materials
without drawing attention from federal investigators. Some residents suspect the blasts could be homemade concoctions of fertilizer,
chemicals or explosive gases. "We definitely want to get to the bottom of this ... absolutely," said Selectman
Kevin O'Connor. Deputy Police Chief Richard Burrows said the police don't know what's causing the low-pitched booms and are
looking for the public's help. People who have seen the explosions or know who is responsible are asked to call
the Tyngsboro Police Department. http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index574.htm
December 4, 2004:
Mystery Tremors in US, Australia -- Unknowncountry.com is one of the few news sources in the world that is
able to assemble similar unusual stories from different areas, and now it appears that mystery tremors, like the mystery booms
reported last week, are taking place in diverse areas. Like the booms, the tremors are being explained as local phenomena,
but, when they occur in clusters like this, is that really true? Residents of Hervey Bay in Queensland, Australia experienced
a mystery tremor on November 29, just after 3PM Australian Time. The tremor was perceived as a low rumble and a fluttering
sensation in the air, described by residents as “odd.” Royal Australian Air Force officials could not explain
the phenomenon, but said that it was not related to any known air activities. A day later, residents of Northern New
Jersey experienced four small seismic events of 1.3 magnitude on the Richter Scale. Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty
Earth Observatory in Palisades, NY, traced the tremors to a rock quarry in the area. Like the booms that took place worldwide
in different areas last week and in recent months, local events seemed to explain them. Or did they? http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=4294
November 19, 2004: WWBT
NBC12Richmond, Virginia - Mysterious 'booms' continue with puzzling regularity in Richmond
- Those mysterious booms on Richmond's Northside
continue to be-fuddle city officials. They've been happening for three weeks now and residents say no one can tell them why.
The latest “boom” was just last night. Based on a map of 911 calls received since the booming noises began, the
majority came from the area near Palmyra and Gloucester.
For three weeks, city officials have explored a multitude of scenarios. They've come up empty and still the booms and shakes
continue. Officials have looked into every logical explanation: a buildup of sewer or natural gas -- both of which have been
ruled out for now. As well as other possibilities: including furnaces blowing up (that would be a one time occurrence),
weather patterns like thunder, not likely says the city, construction, trains colliding, sonic booms -- all a no go. City
officials won't admit they're stumped, but they're certainly frustrated. “It's certainly disruptive and disconcerting
when it happens. But I think people understand it's not a public safety issue at this point," says city spokesman Bill
Farrar. Another possibility is someone playing pranks. Solving the mystery of these "booms" has now become a full-fledged
investigation -- involving the fire department as well as emergency management services on both the city and state level.
The councilmen representing the area plan to hold a special meeting on the booms this Sunday for residents. It'll be at 7 PM at Hermitage Home on Westwood Avenue.
http://www.nbc12.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WWBT%2FMGArticle%2FWBT_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031779248261
November 10, 2004: WANE-TV
Newschannel 15,Ft. Wayne, INDIANA - 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. http://www.wane.com/Global/story.asp?S=2546862&nav=0RYbSy3m
November 8, 2004: Eastern Daily
Press, Norfolk, England - A suspected sonic boom heard across north-east Norfolk today was not caused by a British
aircraft, it was confirmed tonight. The loud bang, heard at least from Sheringham to Halvergate near Yarmouth, startled hundreds
of people going about their daily business at around noon. But a Ministry of Defence spokesman said it was not a domestic
fighter that caused the incident, although he was unable to confirm the source of the sonic boom. “We believe there
was a sonic boom, but it was not a British aircraft that caused it,” said Lt Col Stuart Green. “It was not one
of ours.” Whether the aircraft was European or American was not clear, but they would be the most likely suspects.
But it would have been a military aircraft, as no civilian plane is capable of going fast enough to make a sonic boom.
A spokesman for the UK Civil Aviation Authority said the now out of service Concorde was the only civilian craft that had
ever been able to travel fast enough to create the phenomenon. North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb described how he had been
sitting in his office in North Walsham when he heard an “incredible boom”. “The building shook and
like many people I was shocked. I thought 'has there been some sort of gas explosion?'” Mr Lamb said he felt the
“disturbing” incident begged questions that needed to be answered. He pledged to approach ministers for an explanation.
Ben Dunnell, assistant editor of Aircraft Illustrated and formerly from Norfolk, said sonic booms were rare in the UK. “There
are regulations governing supersonic flight, but it is not clear what happened on this occasion.” When the sonic
boom was heard, windows and homes shook while some people were reported to have been running for cover. “I
heard this enormous explosion,” said John Hilton, who was in Stalham at the time. One or two people were very worried,
although most realised fairly quickly what it probably was. But I don't feel things like this should be happening.”
Police and RAF bosses received scores of calls from those concerned at the explosion. A sonic boom is a loud noise generated
when an aeroplane travels faster than sound waves, which move at approximately 750mph at sea level. Pressure waves merge to
form shock waves, which are heard as sonic booms when they hit the ground. Although there has been no official confirmation
of the noise being a sonic boom, a spokesman at RAF Coltishall said there had been an assumption it was. He added that the
Ministry of Defence in London was handling the investigation into the incident. A spokeswoman for Norfolk police said
it was possible the noise was a sonic boom and that the investigation was in the hands of the RAF. The noise was heard
in Overstrand momentarily before it was heard in Cromer, suggesting it came from an aircraft travelling east to west.
http://new.edp24.co.uk/content/news/story.aspx?brand=EDPOnline&category=News&tBrand=edponline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED08%20Nov%202004%2017%3A55%3A31%3A097
January 20, 2004: Manatee County,
Florida-- 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.
