“Seneca guns” was the answer St. James resident Matt Pugliese got when he called the newspaper office Thursday, inquiring about strange rumblings he had heard earlier that day. There were other calls to the newspaper last week, and the week before, and the answer was always the same:
“Seneca guns.”
That was the explanation we’d always heard, and we were just passing it along.
Mr. Pugliese was grateful — more for the quick response than for the admittedly vague answer — but remained puzzled by the phenomenon that seems to have come upon us more frequently this fall than anytime in memory.
So, we searched for “Seneca guns” — a term locals have heard forever but is quite new to newcomers — and chose to rely most heavily on the website of the U.S. Geological Survey. A logical start, it seemed.
First, the term “Seneca guns.”
The term, according to the website, is “just a name, not an explanation. It does not tell us anything about what causes these noises and shakings.”
The name originated in a short story that James Fennimore Cooper wrote during the 1800s. The name refers to booms that have been heard on the shores of Lake Seneca in New York State. The name has been applied to similar noises along the coasts of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.
Similar booms are called “Barisol guns” in coastal India.
What’s the cause?
“The thing that comes closest to matching all of the observations is sonic booms from military aircraft,” the writer noted. One article reported on one loud boom that was heard in Myrtle Beach, the sound so loud that it shook a window and the sofa that the person was sitting on, and she felt the shock from the sound.
“Thus, a loud enough boom can be felt,” the USGS report concluded.
In that case, the U.S. Air Force claimed responsibility and said it had been conducting training exercises at the time. In a Virginia case in the 1970s, the Navy admitted that one of its planes had caused a sonic boom. The problem with sonic booms is that they cannot explain “Seneca guns” that occurred before supersonic jets.
Naval ships firing their guns offshore might have produced some of the booms, the USGS report continued. Under certain atmospheric conditions, sounds can travel farther than usual so that they might be heard onshore as loud booms. Naval firing might explain some of the “Seneca guns” that occurred before jet planes were invented. Naval gunfire might have caused some of the booms that were heard during the 1800s and early 1900s, when it might have been more common for ships to fire within a few miles of shore. However, naval gunfire cannot explain the “Seneca guns” around Seneca Lake.
Earthquakes are also a possible cause. In southeastern North Carolina, earthquake lists show only seven events between 1871 and 1968. The problem with the earthquake explanation is that something that is felt or heard as strongly as “Seneca guns” should have been recorded on nearby seismographs.
What’s not the cause?
A list of non-answers provided by the U.S. Geological Service includes:
Landslides off the Continental Shelf — These have happened in the geologic past, but there are no reports that they happened during recorded history.
Industrial disasters, like the Chernobyl explosion — Anything that large would be reported. There would be no way to hide the news because too many people nearby would have seen, heard and felt the blast.
Global warming — The articles that suggest this don’t offer any explanation of how a gradual warming of the atmosphere would produce something as sudden as a loud boom. Also, global warming would affect the whole globe, whereas “Seneca guns” have only been reported from a few areas.
A hole in the ozone layer — Holes in the ozone layer form over the north and south poles, not over the U.S. or India.
Shifts of tectonic plates — There are no tectonic plate boundaries near the East Coast. The nearest plate boundaries are in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and in the Caribbean Sea.
Methane released from the ocean floor and exploding when it rises to the surface and contacts the air — There is methane buried under the ocean floor. Sometimes the methane can seep upward; however, it does not come up suddenly enough or in large enough amounts to cause explosions.
Cold air meeting warm Gulf Stream air — Two results might be thunder and lightning, but “Seneca guns” have been reported in clear weather — like we had Thursday — as well as stormy.
Meteor exploding in the atmosphere — Any meteorite large enough to cause something as strong as a “Seneca gun” would be much rarer than the phenomenon itself .
Top secret military activity — The problem with this explanation is that it’s too easy. There’s no way to disprove the idea as a cause of “Seneca guns” because if it’s top secret we won’t know about it. The military has lots of secrets, but something big enough to cause “Seneca guns” in so many regions, including India, would be really hard to keep secret.
And so...
There is no agreement on what causes the “Seneca guns” phenomenon. They have been occurring around the eastern U.S. — and in India — for centuries at least. They have worried people, but they have never caused damage or injury.
So when Mr. Pugliese reads this, he can tell the next neighbor who asks that the rumbling they heard and felt was “Seneca guns,” and have the satisfaction of knowing his answer is as good as anybody’s.
Original Article
Ken Keegan Real Estate Broker (910) 523-0903 mobile Email Me http://www.kenkeegan.com/
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