Mysterious Booms --- Earth noises

[William]

Mysterious Booms and Trembles Plague Wisconsin Town, Baffle Scientists

Police, residents and experts are baffled by the source of mysterious
booms and shaking that have been plaguing the town of Clintonville,
Wis., for the past three days, and have caused some residents to flee.

The Clintonville Police Department said they have received over 250
calls about noises from underground shaking homes in the northeast
corner of the town near Green Bay, Wis. with approximately 5000
residents.
The mystery is even stumping some of the brightest minds at the
University of Wisconsin, who were consulted about whether or not these booms could be related to seismic activity.

"I think we can rule out that standard earthquake activity, [that] some
swarm of earthquakes is happening in that region. It also really looks
like it's not connected to, say, unusual drilling activity or some other
kind of real obvious human induced signal, " Harold Tobin, one of those
professors in the Geoscience department at the University of Wisconsin
told WKOW.

Tobin headed to Clintonville after he received a call from the Wisconsin Geological Survey office asking for help.

Tobin and a colleague looked at activity on several of the seismometers
that sit in the region near Clintonville. He says there is an indication
that it is an especially noisy site, but not noisy enough to cause the
sounds people there are describing.

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/mys...-news.html

[Elizabeth]

That's interesting, William. I have yet to hear strange sounds where I live. This article is pretty long but excellent and comprehensive.

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/242280...Heliopolis



"Professor Khalilov was later interviewed about the strange sounds heard over the world. I'll close this article with some food for thought from Dr. Khalilov:

We have analyzed records of these sounds and found that most of their spectrum lies within the infrasound range, i.e. is not audible to humans. What people hear is only a small fraction of the actual power of these sounds. They are low-frequency acoustic emissions in the range between 20 and 100 Hz modulated by ultra-low infrasonic waves from 0.1 to 15 Hz. In geophysics, they are called acoustic-gravity waves; they are formed in the upper atmosphere, at the atmosphere-ionosphere boundary in particular. There can be quite a lot of causes why those waves are generated: earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, storms, tsunamis, etc. However, the scale of the observed humming sound in terms of both the area covered and its power far exceeds those that can be generated by the above-mentioned phenomena.

In that case, what could be causing this humming in the sky?





© SOHO/NASA
Comet NEAT causing the sun to discharge during its flyby in 2003.In our opinion, the source of such powerful and immense manifestation of acoustic-gravity waves must be very large-scale energy processes. These processes include powerful solar flares and huge energy flows generated by them, rushing towards Earth's surface and destabilizing the magnetosphere, ionosphere and upper atmosphere. Thus, the effects of powerful solar flares: the impact of shock waves in the solar wind, streams of corpuscles and bursts of electromagnetic radiation are the main causes of generation of acoustic-gravitation waves following increased solar activity. [...]

But you said that the cause of the "sky hum" can lie within Earth's core as well, what does it mean?

There is one more possible cause of these sounds and it may lie at the Earth's core. The fact is that the acceleration of the drift of the Earth's north magnetic pole which increased more than fivefold between 1998 and 2003 and is at the same level today points to intensification of energy processes in the Earth's core, since it is processes in the inner and outer core that form the Earth's geomagnetic field. Meanwhile, as we have already reported, on November 15, 2011 all ATROPATENA geophysical stations which record three-dimensional variations of the Earth's gravitational field almost simultaneously registered a powerful gravitational impulse. The stations are deployed in Istanbul, Kiev, Baku, Islamabad and Yogyakarta, with the first and last one being separated by a distance of about 10,000 km. Such a phenomenon is only possible if the source of this emanation is at the Earth's core level. That huge energy release from the Earth's core at the end of the last year was some kind of a start signal indicating the transition of the Earth's internal energy into a new active phase.

Intensification of the energy processes in the Earth's core can modulate the geomagnetic field which, through a chain of physical processes at the ionosphere - atmosphere boundary level, generates acoustic-gravity waves the audible range of which has been heard by people in the form of a frightening low-frequency sound in different parts of our planet.

In both cases, even though the causes of acoustic-gravity waves are of a quite understandable geophysical nature, they are indicative of the expected significant increase in solar activity and the geodynamic activity of our planet. There is no doubt that processes in the core rule the internal energy of our planet, therefore, we should expect by the end of 2012 a sharp rise in strong earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis and extreme weather events with peak levels in 2013 - 2014."

[Richard]

Maybe it's aliens like in the movie Tremors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tlzvh0cR9q4

[Elizabeth]

That must be it, Richard.

How COULD I have missed this movie? It was only six degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon?

[Breaking News Breaking News]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pla...MMVcMojLJg

Uploaded by Sheilaaliens on Mar 21, 2012

Here is a map of the three locations in Wisconsin experiencing strangeness right now. Clintonville and Montello with the rumbles and shaking. Fond Du Lac with the strange substance in the sewers. g.co/maps/nztss

"Tonight, police in Montello are investigating reports of booming sounds similar to what's been reported in Clintonville this week.

Many of the people making the reports say they hadn't even heard about what was going on in Clintonville until they began researching their own problem.

Patti Lekas said, "No one had an explanation."

In Montello, it's the talk of the town.

Lekas said, "There was a loud boom and all the windows shook. The whole house shook."

A loud rumble around 5-thirty last night immediately triggered calls to the police department.

Montello Police Chief Richard Olson said, "We have a lot of good, reliable sources that reported this pretty much community wide."

Jean Dawidziak's son heard the boom.

She says, "He was out at the farm and said mom there was this big thing, the whole house shook."

Pretty much everyone we talked to in Montello says they either heard and felt this rumble themselves or they know someone who did. One person even described it like a really bad train wreck, all the cars slamming into each other at once, right where you're standing.

Olson says, "They reported it almost as if it was under ground or ground level."

The police chief is still trying to make sense of it.

Olson says, "We are currently investigating it. We don't have an answer at this point. We've obviously checked with our typical sources such as utility companies and anybody maybe drilling or doing construction in the area and at this point in time we don't' know what it is."

Lekas says, "It would be like in the old days when you had a sonic boom and your windows rattled, but I mean it shook the entire house."

For the last three days the Clintonville community has reported similar booms.

Now 80 miles away in Montello they're worried they might have the same problem.

Lekas says, "It's not just my imagination or a couple crazy people in town. I mean, I was thinking it was an explosion but we had no flames anywhere."

But If it's anything like Clintonville it may be awhile until these people get any answers.

With a chuckle, Dawidziak said, "I would like to know what it is so it's not something underground that's going to blow up and this whole city is going to be gone or something. I would like to know. "

Today University of Wisconsin-Madison seismologist Harold Tobin said at this point he is not aware of any seismic readings or reports of the boom near Montello."
www.nbc15.com/news/headlines/Mysterious_Sound_And_Rumble_In_Montello_1...

[William]

Interesting, dont know why my yahoo vid did not show.

[Richard]

I don't think this software can display Yahoo videos.

[Elizabeth]

Don't you love the strange lack of curiosity by the "experts" as in: "Today University of Wisconsin-Madison seismologist Harold Tobin said at this point he is not aware of any seismic readings or reports of the boom near Montello."

This is a time honored device used in horror movies. Oh wait...we're IN A HORROR MOVIE!

[Richard]

The experts have a pretty good cover story now. I forgot where I read it but if I come across it again I'll post the link. They said Wisconsin experienced a minor earthquakes. The quakes are so small that they don't register on any meters. Normally quakes that small no one feels them but because of the bedrock Wisconsin is on they feel it. I don't believe that story but it sounds good enough that most people will buy it.

[Breaking News Breaking News]

Associated Press
6:53 a.m. CDT, March 23, 2012

A minor earthquake occurred this week near the eastern Wisconsin city where researchers have been investigating a series of unexplained booming sounds, federal geologists said Thursday.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the 1.5-magnitude earthquake struck Tuesday just after midnight in Clintonville, a town of about 4,600 people about 40 miles west of Green Bay.

Geophysicist Paul Caruso told The Associated Press that loud booming noises have been known to accompany earthquakes. It's possible the mysterious sounds that town officials have been investigating are linked to the quake, he said.

Earthquakes can generate seismic energy that moves through rock at thousands of miles per hour, producing a sonic boom when the waves come to the surface, Caruso said.

"To be honest, I'm skeptical that there'd be a sound report associated with such a small earthquake, but it's possible," he said.

Those reservations didn't stop Clintonville City Administrator Lisa Kuss from declaring "the mystery is solved" at a news conference Thursday evening.

She said USGS representatives described the event as a swarm of several small earthquakes in a very short time.

"In other places in the United States, a 1.5 earthquake would not be felt," she said. "But the type of rock Wisconsin has transmits seismic energy very well."

The U.S. Geological Survey says earthquakes with magnitude of 2.0 or less aren't commonly felt by people and are generally recorded only on local seismographs. Caruso said the Tuesday earthquake was discovered after people reported feeling something, and geologists pored through their data to determine that an earthquake did indeed strike.

Local residents have reported late-night disturbances since Sunday, including a shaking ground and loud booms that sound like thunder or fireworks.

City officials investigated and ruled out a number of human-related explanations, such as construction, traffic, military exercises and underground work.

Clintonville resident Jordan Pfeiler, 21, said she doubted an earthquake caused the noises. She said the booms she experienced were in a series over the course of several hours and not continuous as she might have expected if they were caused by an earthquake.

Still, she said, "It's a little scary knowing Clintonville could even have earthquakes."

Steve Dutch, a geologist at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, said a 1.5 magnitude earthquake produces the energy equivalent of 100 pounds of explosives and could produce loud sounds.

But he was reluctant to describe Tuesday's event as an earthquake, saying the term is generally used to refer to widespread stress in the earth's crust. What happened in Wisconsin could be near the surface, perhaps caused by groundwater movement or thermal expansion of underground pipes, he said.

Still, Dutch said it was possible that the event could produce a series of sounds over time.

"If you've got something causing a little bit of shifting underground, it may take a while for whatever is causing it to play itself out," he said

Caruso, the U.S. Geological Survey scientist, said Tuesday's event was confirmed as an earthquake because it registered on six different seismometers, including some as far as central Iowa.

Jolene Van Beek, 41, had been jarred awake several times by late-night rumbling this week. When asked by telephone Thursday whether she thought the noises were caused by an earthquake, she joked that she was at a nearby lake "waiting for the tsunami to hit."

"Anything to do with earthquakes is going to freak people out," she said. "You'd never expect it in Wisconsin."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local...6076.story