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Official says boom, shake was not an earthquake

Wednesday, November 12, 2008
By Nick Schneider, Assistant Editor

A spokesman with the U.S. Geological Society says a "boom and shake" felt in the Bloomfield area on Tuesday evening was not related to earthquake activity.

The Greene County Daily World received a call from a female caller about 6 p.m. Tuesday, who inquired if there were any reports of an earthquake in the area north Bloomfield. She said there was a boom and some shaking felt.

An initial check with the U.S. Geological Society -- the agency that tracks earthquake activity -- showed there was no earthquake activity in any region of the state of Indiana on Tuesday.

A follow-up call on Wednesday morning, confirmed the earlier determination that the shaking was probably caused by something other than seismic activity.

Randy Baldwin, a geophysicist with U.S. Geological Society's Earthquake Center in Colorado, said, "I've been sitting here all night and there was nothing in that region. I don't see anything. It could have been a sonic boom."

A real-time map showing current seismic activity can be accessed by clicking on the following link:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/rece...

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Heard/felt it here in the middle of Linton too. Jsut got out of my car to head in the house. Thought my furnace or something blew up.

-- Posted by cgarwood on Wed, Nov 12, 2008, at 7:29 AM

I live on 157 North in Bloomfield and I felt the whole house shake. I didn't know what was going on. Kind of scary not knowing.

-- Posted by jesusfreak on Wed, Nov 12, 2008, at 8:43 AM

Could have been a sonic boom from the Air Force, Sometimes they go a little faster then they mean to.

-- Posted by ActLikeYouHaveABrain on Wed, Nov 12, 2008, at 12:27 PM

we heard/felt it too here in Linton. People came out of their houses to look and see is they could see anything. We live close to the highway, thought maybe a wreck, or trains connecting. weird!!

-- Posted by lacydee on Wed, Nov 12, 2008, at 12:55 PM

i was at a friends house, S.E. Linton, and we thought a car had ran into the house.........freaky.

-- Posted by furball on Wed, Nov 12, 2008, at 1:22 PM

My windows rattled and my house shook - live in Linton

-- Posted by cc1212 on Wed, Nov 12, 2008, at 3:17 PM

We live North of the hospital and felt it.

-- Posted by gravytrain on Wed, Nov 12, 2008, at 3:27 PM

Aliens perhaps????......(not mexican type)

-- Posted by Dtown on Wed, Nov 12, 2008, at 6:24 PM

Maybe a local meth lab going out of business or they were selling it to the insurance company.

-- Posted by Busseron on Wed, Nov 12, 2008, at 7:00 PM

Was also felt in Worthington area and almost to Freedom. Same boom and shaking/rattling. Maybe Crane was disposing of munitions or something. Felt something similar this past summer and I was in Spencer at the time.

-- Posted by taximom on Wed, Nov 12, 2008, at 7:41 PM

the History Channel just did a story on something like that in KOKOMO this spring..

they thought it was aliens... Indaian nat guard says it was an f16 ....

-- Posted by silerCityDude on Wed, Nov 12, 2008, at 10:53 PM

I grew up in the Newark area and every once in a while we would experience the sonic boom of jets flying too low either from Rose Hulman or Crane. Up in the rural area I guess the pilots love to fly Nap of the Earth with the hilly terrain. It would rattle our house as well. One day I witnessed the jet come over head and it was shrieking loud as can be that day but wasn't going fast enough for the sonic boom.

-- Posted by HoosierVet on Wed, Nov 12, 2008, at 11:50 PM

I grew up right next to Crane and our house would shake all the time.

-- Posted by am1982 on Wed, Nov 12, 2008, at 11:58 PM

I was outside at the time, far north end of Lonetree Rd.

Sounded and felt like a stick of dynamite went off in my front yard. The wife came running outside looking for me, said it shook everything in the house.

-- Posted by FTM on Thu, Nov 13, 2008, at 1:39 AM

I don't know what they think it was, but it sure rattled everything in my house!

-- Posted by rileyheart on Thu, Nov 13, 2008, at 1:47 AM

My grandma lives in Howesville. She said it shook her whole house and rattled the windows. She also said it was really loud and hurt her ears!!

-- Posted by SHSgrad on Thu, Nov 13, 2008, at 6:37 AM

For this to not be an earthquake yet felt over such a wide area, I think there's a possibility it could've been a fireball meteorite exploding in the atmosphere upon reentry over Greene County. If it was cloudy that night, then no one would've seen the bright light that it would've created. There is a meteor shower going on right now called the Taurids that is known to produce lots of bright fireballs. It comes from a short-period comet that orbits in the inner solar system. If one of the meteors is big enough, say the size of a tennis ball, it could produce a boom like this over the entire county. I don't think a fighter plane would.

-- Posted by zenos on Thu, Nov 13, 2008, at 7:45 AM

NUCULAR Weapon; Crane.

-- Posted by teddy821 on Thu, Nov 13, 2008, at 7:57 AM

Have you ever found out the cause of the big boom?This would be scarey.

-- Posted by mamacha on Wed, Nov 19, 2008, at 2:48 PM