"Canon Booms" Heard And Felt For 2-3 Years Prior To 1811-1812 New Madrid Earthquakes

I live in the area which would be directly effected by this quake,
I have yet to hear any booming sounds whatsoever over the last
few years, however i always keep the possibility of another quake
in the back of my mind, a quake so strong previously that it ran
the Mississippi backwards...... well anything with enough power
to do that deserves respect..... i will for sure be keeping my
eyes and ears open.

reply to post by stirling


Here's a USGS link with some info.
There's a link in there about noises associated with the New Madrid quakes too.

earthquake.usgs.gov...

I live in PA & the first time I heard the Seneca Guns was when Chile had their big quake.
I looked at the clock when I heard it & found out later that it was at the exact same time!
People 35 miles away from me heard it too & were talking about it.
A lot of people heard it, but didn't know what it was!

My sister has a friend in Ohio, it woke them up it was so loud.
They thought it was somebody pounding on their door!
So it was heard over a large area!

We've heard it at least three times since. The last time was Thanksgiving afternoon.
That time it shook the house & rattled windows!

It's a lot easier to hear at night, & be sure what it is, as there is less background noise.
During the day you tend to second guess youself....especially if there is only one boom!
But in the middle of the night, in our semi rural area, it's very quiet.

It's very impressive, especially when there are a series of them!
One night there was even a metallic scraping sound.
At first I thought it was a car accident & two cars had broadsided each other.
That's just what it sounded like, but lasted a lot longer than what two cars would have!

I've lived here most of my life & never heard it until that first one three years ago.
I would have noticed as this area was even more quiet before, even in the daytime!

If you hear a really good one, you will never forget it!
How something coming from underground could be so loud?
Sometimes a single boom, sometimes a series, sometimes scraping like a fault is moving.
Sometimes a combination of both!

One night there was a huge snap or crack in the outside wall of the upstairs bedroom!
It was after I had gone to bed in that room! It sounded like a 2 x 4 had snapped!
The cat was on the bed & he jumped & froze in place with his ears back!
I was waiting for something else it was sooo loud. But that was all.
I expected cracked plaster, or damage on the outside...but there was nothing!

There is definitely an increase in the activity!
It makes me wonder...the little creaks & groans in houses,
that people always say are the 'house settling'? Maybe it's not!
Maybe it's slight movement! Ours was built 86 years ago, it should be done already!!!

I sure hope our house isn't built over a fault line!!!
WOQ

If it might help for adding some additional information, I did a thread on the 1895 New Madrid Quake not too long back which also carried a bit of the 1811/12 series info. At least projections of what it looked like on a modern damage projection map.

It's a different thread, different focus for quakes ..but simply has some overlap for info I figured would be of interest

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by Red Cloak
There has been speculation recently that the loud boom sounds and vibrations being reported around the USA could be related to the New Madrid fault zone. So I decided to look at some of the accounts from the survivors of the 1811-1812 New Madrid series of earthquakes, which supposedly included 4 mega quakes, 3 major quakes, and thousands of minor quakes.

What I found is that several people wrote accounts of hearing what they described as loud booms that sounded like cannon blasts for up to 2-3 years (depending on the location) before the earthquakes happened. The descriptions talk about these loud booms often being accompanied by vibration and shaking sensations. The accounts describe these loud "cannon booms" as happening also right before the earthquakes happened.

They describe hearing the same loud booms they had been hearing for up to 3 years right before the big earthquakes hit. The only difference was that the sound booms right before the quakes hit were louder than the previous booms that had been happening for the previous 2-3 years.

There are such accounts from places like Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. So, it appears that the speculation by some that the loud boom noises that are being heard around the US might be related to the New Madrid fault zone, could indeed be correct.

I have a couple of questions, Red.

Are you willing to break tradition and participate fully in a thread that you created?

reply to post by Phage


My link was originally from USGS and they linked to the Missouri site. So you can believe whatever ya wanna believe. Fine by me.

Either way, I still find it interesting it was preceded by a comet.

Living in the New Madrid zone, I had read many accounts, but that was something I either forgot or failed to read and digest.

I still haven't found anything that points to booms being heard in the area for months and or years.

I would love to know if thats a fact though considering all the booms and shakes that are said not to be seismic related.

Go to the USGS page as previously mentioned, then click the link below the heading, "New Madrid, Missouri". Then click on "Eye Witness Account". Read the first one by Eliza Bryan. Near the end of the account, there's a paragraph that reads: "There is one circumstance which I think worthy of remark. This country was formerly subject to very hard thunder; but for more than twelve months before the commencement of the earthquake there was none at all, and but very little since, a great part of which resembles subterraneous thunder. The shocks still continue, but are growing more light, and less frequent. -E.B"

reply to post by coppcar


Thats where I read and linked in my original post. The way it reads to me is thunder was absent.... none at all she says. I'm assuming the subterranean thunder she speaks of is from right before the quake and thereafter.

Tell me if I am wrong and just not reading it correctly. lol

I have read those accounts several times over the years and never thought once it was booming months or years prior.

As an ex underground coal miner, I can tell you several feet of breaking rock has a sharp, loud "thump" to it. When we had roof falls, that was one of the sure signs things were about to get messy. As the rock settles, it goes beyond it's "stretching" point and snaps. This was on a comparatively small scale, so rock that is under enough pressure to move miles of landscape and be felt far away is going to be much louder.

reply to post by wasobservingquietly


Not sure what part of PA you are in WOQ...but I'm in SW PA. Where I am at we are heavily undermined, and I too have heard cracking "booms" which I have attributed to 100 year old plus mines collapsing, timbers snapping. Etc. I have felt rumbles in a building I used to work in...and I turned out that it was built on pyrite (bldg was later condemned & torn down eventually). But we "discovered" the issue because the first floor cement (covered over with vinyl flooring) buckled and tilted (you could "see" the I leveling with a glass of water on a desk). It all happened over a few weeks (from bldg seeming safe to cement subfloor buckling and mirrors (it was a hair salon) cracking.)

My point is we have very interesting geology under PA (on the plu$ side that's what gives us all that coal, natural gas and shale!)

Originally posted by stirling
Isnt there some booming that they call the Mowhawk guns or seneca guns that are heard back in north east US?
They have any relation to the New madrid?

Yes, the Seneca guns, from the mysterious noises heard around Seneca Lake in Upstate NY that sound like artillery. Close to where the NMSZ runs along the St. Lawrence Seaway.

reply to post by Red Cloak


I have been following these "boom" stories for a while now and also collecting news videos as they are reported. I would really like to see what links you have to the stories of 1811/12

Scroll down this article and you'll find links for different states where the booms have been reported/documented:

More info on the booms - related to impending New Madrid event?

Originally posted by MamaJ

Thats where I read and linked in my original post. The way it reads to me is thunder was absent.... none at all she says. I'm assuming the subterranean thunder she speaks of is from right before the quake and thereafter.

Tell me if I am wrong and just not reading it correctly. lol

I have read those accounts several times over the years and never thought once it was booming months or years prior.

>>>>>>>>

When I read it I had the impression that loud thunderous noises were common (not storm generated thunder) prior to 12+ months before the quake. The 12+ months prior had no such noises. She didn't say how much time elapsed during the noisy period, but since it was "normal", it was probably quite a while. Maybe folks should be more concerned when the booms stop. It could be that I misunderstand.

It was great fun reading John Bradbury's account, excellent writer.

I am so convinced of a major quake coming to the West Coast and East Coast that I began recording the measurements in the US to look for a pattern. I have not found a statistical pattern as of yet, but I am sure it will come through. Some patterns are very difficult to see, and this is one. It happen before and it will happen again. We are overdue at every major fault in the US.

During the first part of the month I heard and felt many 'booms' or concussions that seemed to be a couple miles from my place. Around here there a lot of people with guns and rifles, so to hear loud reports is nothing to arouse any sort of attention. However the sounds and slight shock seemed much different.
Typically folks popping off rounds, which happens more on weekends as a recreational activity, has a different sound to it. Even black powder enthusiasts and the sound of their reports (report=gunshot) has a distinctive sound from cartridge ammo (typical brass ammo) and is unmistakable from black powder in sound and shock. Black powder being a boom, cartridges, a crack.

Anyway, for several days I encountered these booming sounds and thought someone might be dynomiting stumps or something as they do actively log in the area, and as of late they have cleared large areas of forest for farming. But, all I'v seen in that regard is big Caterpillars ripping up stumps ?

Also when people are firing guns and rifles around here, there is a certain rhythm to their shooting, followed by silences as they reload and such.
This was distinctly different in frequency and rhythm to such a sporting event. Very random, very distant, and with the sound and feeling of power. Believe me, I know the difference of people popping off rounds, the Cops across the way do it occasionally in practice, every other month or so, along with the neighbors mostly on weekends, so I know the sound.

Forgot to add... my location is in south central North Carolina, not all that far from the fault.

I have long been convinced that both strange booming sounds, and strange lights in the sky can be attributed to fault zone activity. Up until this point there has not been enough research done investigating the idea, which is understandable, since there is not much to suggest such occurrences as a result of inner-earth movement. So while I believe science is lagging behind in understanding what is going on here, it is understandable, and it will be remedied in the future. I am convinced that there a some UFO reports that are explained by plate activity under the earth's surface, although I doubt I could get a true UFO believer to accept that. This is unrelated of course, but to their defense there truly do seem to be unexplainable lights in the sky at times. But earthquake lights are not explainable then either, are they?

was reading this site last night:

www.ceri.memphis.edu...

New Madrid Compendium

Here you will find listings of over 600 references that are related to the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812.

These references include newspaper articles, scientific articles, folklore, maps, and eyewitness accounts, such as the one below:

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by MamaJ

 

After further reading I found this highly interesting below.

Not quite 17 months apparently.

The Great Comet of 1811, formally designated C/1811 F1, is a comet that was visible to the naked eye for around 260 days,

en.wikipedia.org...


It was not brightest during the Earthquakes. In fact it was fading rapidly at that point.

On December 2, Herschel noted the tail was "hardly 5 degrees long and of a very feeble light." He said the streams were both 3° 12' long. He added, "they joined more to the sides than the vertex, and had lost their former vivid appearance; their colour being changed into that of scattered light." On December 9, Herschel wrote that the tail length had changed little since the 2nd. He noted, "The branches were already so much scattered taht observations of them could no longer be made with any accuracy." On December 14, Herschel wrote that the tail "still remained as before, but the end of it was much fainter."

cometography.com...

The comet's closest approach to Earth was in October and was at a distance of more than 1 AU.

edit on 3/24/2013 by Phage because: (no reason given)

That's interesting - I once came across a website that described the diary of a person in the 1800's who experienced a couple of nights when the sky glowed extremely light and red, along with the atmosphere become extremely hot. There was some theory this was the tail end of a comet.

Another diary from the New Madrid earthquake described how the fields and surround land writhed like snakes.
I'd really like to find that site again.

reply to post by stirling


Seneca guns. And yes it was related to the NMsz.There was a war going on with the Seneca Indians at the time.

More booms last night ...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) – The Bullitt County Sheriff’s Department is asking people in the area to quit calling 911 about the loud booms they heard Monday night.

Agency dispatchers said they believe the loud blasts are coming from either Fort Knox or a rock quarry in the Zoneton area.

They said they have no other explanation for the consistent booms. There is no emergency.

WHAS11

Basically, they do not know where the booms are coming from but they are being heard over a large area.



And there are tons of conflicting reports from many people and even a link to this thread, haha!

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MamaJ
reply to post by rickymouse

 

There are accounts of hearing boom sounds before an earthquake but I have never read years or even months prior. Not saying it isn't possible, just have never read that in the accounts of the New Madrid EQ.

Again, I would love to see links. I've looked for them, to no avail.

Thing was is that those booms probably were the result of the build up of these quakes. I think they are explosions of gas erupting from fissures when the earth's crust displaces. Think about this...back then there was no recording of these quakes so the booms could have been the result of much smaller quakes that weren't felt, or the boom could have been a fair distance from the epicenter. That's what is currently happening. There are many small quakes happening all over the world where these booms are happening, not just the New Madrid. Take a look at Oklahoma where hundreds of quakes are happening every week right now and witnesses are reporting that house-rattling booms are also taking place. I might add, the boom sounds have picked up quite a bit recently...and these booms have been picking up in frequency for a few years now, just as the witnesses to the 1811-12 quakes estimated they had heard booms for. Small quake activity has picked up in many other areas to and so has volcanic activity. It's getting interesting.