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Mysterious Booms

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A mysterious boom was felt across San Diego county today. It rocked buildings, but it doesn't appear to have been an earthquake. www.kusi.com/news/local/2577691.html

March 28, 2006 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.

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."

February 25, 2006 SKOWHEGAN, MAINE - EARTH SHAKING REPORTS POUR IN

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."