Unexplained Booms, The Mystery Continues

If you’ve been following the news in the last while, you may have read about the recent unexplained booms in Flint, Michigan, among other places around the world.  The sound, likened to thunder or a sonic boom, is described by witnesses as loud and startling, and it has the world scratching its proverbial head.

These mysterious and thunderous sounds are nothing new however, in Flint –where they’ve been heard on a weekly basis for over a year now- and all over the world.  Reports of loud unexplained booms date back to the mid 1800’s and earlier; early white settlers in North America were told by the native Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) that the booms were the sound of the Great Spirit continuing his work of shaping the earth.  The booms have garnered a few nick names, from Seneca Guns to Mistpouffers, Moodus Guns and Fog Guns, but the phenomenon has never officially been named.  These terms generally come from the geography of the place they are experienced, while others (especially in foreign countries) are named for traditional superstitions and culture.

The mystery boom phenomenon has been experienced all around the world, from the US and Canada, to islands in the Adriatic Sea, Australia, Ireland, Belgium and many other countries.  In the more recent occurrences, people have described the sounds as loud enough to shake windows and dishes in cupboards, though no damage has been attributed to the phenomenon to date.

Aside from native spirit gods, there have been many theories put forth to explain the phenomenon and some instances of the boom have been labelled as solved (though some argue with that status).  Some of the more obscure explanations range from such mundane ideas as exploding gas tanks -as cars are crushed at junk yards close to the areas of the booms- to erupting gas pockets under deep lakes and in sewers and solar or magnetic resonance in the upper atmosphere (how that would work is beyond my scientific knowledge).  The more mainstream explanations and the ones most widely accepted are:

• Sonic booms caused by military aircraft (though this doesn’t do much to explain those occurrences before the invention of the aircraft, let alone the first supersonic flight)
• High altitude or distant lightning (though this fails to account for booms heard on cloudless days)
• And even meteors entering Earth’s atmosphere.

Low-magnitude earthquakes are the leading explanation (possibly).  This theory suggest that quakes of a low magnitude, around 1.5 on the Richter Scale, cause low frequency vibrations, called infrasonic booms, that can cause intermittent high volume booms.  Volcanoes and deep level tectonic movement can also cause this kind of low frequency sound.[1]

Of course, the paranormal community, which is largely responsible for the collection of unexplained boom data, has its own theories to share.  As you would expect, aliens and UFOs are prominent in this discussion, but the most oft cited culprit is HAARP or the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program.

HAARP, as I’ve previously written, is based in Gakona, Alaska and is funded by The US Air Force, the US Navy, the University of Alaska and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (or DARPA, which, I might add, garners its own fair share of conspiracy attention).  HAARP’s official function is to analyze the ionosphere and investigate the potential for developing ionospheric enhancement technology for radio communications and surveillance.[2]  But as all conspiracy theorists know, that’s just a front for all manner of nefarious and covert scientific-military operations; from a targeted earthquake generating machine to a base for chemtrail population (or mind) control programs.

Despite having a website that fully explains their mission and purpose, in a culture of government mistrust, HAARP is widely blamed for much of the domestic military-industrial subterfuge, and, as mentioned, is the leading suspect in the unexplained booms phenomenon.  Some believe that the booms are a bi-product of HAARP surveillance efforts while others are convinced it’s the result of some kind of weather control device (as many booms are heard in advance of large storms).

Having never heard a boom, either sonic or unexplained, I’m not really in a position to debunk or support any of these explanations, but I think the likelihood that the US Government has the technical ability to make such a ruckus is slim at best.  But hey, I’ve been wrong before.

What do you think…about the booms or about HAARP?  Let me know in the comment section below.