“Heavenly earthquakes” occurring around the world baffle scientists

Despite numerous investigations, the exact cause is still unknown, but scientists have confirmed that it is a real weather phenomenon known as a “sky earthquake.”

This mysterious atmospheric phenomenon has been heard around the world for more than 200 years, without scientists being able to reveal the exact cause and origin of these sounds.

“Skyquakes” are often described as an explosive sound, sometimes powerful enough to shake windows and buildings.

Among the places where they have been spotted are the Ganges River in India, the east coast of the United States and its small lakes, Japan, the Bay of Fundy in Canada, and parts of Australia, Belgium, Scotland, Italy and Ireland.

Scientists have tried to uncover the source of these loud sounds, and have proposed theories such as a meteorite exploding in the atmosphere, military training, explosions in quarries, or distant storms or earthquakes, but there is no satisfactory theory to explain all the recorded noise.

“Heavenly earthquakes” were described as a “roaring sound” or “loud explosions.” These sounds have also been classified as “lake rifles” or “Seneca rifles,” after Seneca Lake in central New York State which also witnessed this phenomenon in 1850.

American writer James Fenimore Cooper described the phenomenon in his story “The Cannon on the Lake,” which he wrote in 1850, as “a sound resembling the explosion of heavy artillery, which cannot be explained by any known laws of nature,” as well as a “deep, hollow, distant, and majestic” sound.

These mysterious events have been recorded throughout history, baffling scholars and the general public. The explosions were unidentifiable due to their random timing, and were not linked to any other natural events.

Since 2013, scientists have only begun using seismic data obtained from the EarthScope Transportable Array (ESTA) in 2020.

ESTA is a network of more than 400 seismic stations across the United States that detect earthquakes, volcanoes and landslides.

A team of scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill compared ESTA data with news articles to determine whether the noise was caused by earthquakes.

“In general, we think this is a weather phenomenon — we don’t think it comes from seismic activity,” said Eli Bird, a researcher who participated in the study. We assume that it spreads through the atmosphere and not the ground.”

Scientists have speculated that another possibility could be asteroids – space rocks that explode when they hit Earth’s atmosphere

Another possibility is oceanic events, such as big waves crashing off the coast or thunder sounding over the ocean, Baird said.

“Weather conditions may be such that it swells in a certain direction, or mainly affects this local area,” he explained.

However, despite their efforts, seismologists are still unable to conclusively pinpoint the source of the “skyquakes.”

Source: Daily Mail