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Subscribe to RSSScientists say a series of earthquakes are behind the mysterious booms plaguing Clintonville, Wisconsin, but some locals aren't so sure. WTMJ's Annie Scholz reports.
When the town of Clintonville, Wis., declared that mysterious booms scaring residents were tied to small tremors, they didn't convince everyone -- not even every quake scientist. So to be sure, they had the sound analyzed (click to hear it) and brought in seismic sensors.
Moreover, what with all the media attention, they've even decided to make the most of their celebrity moment by selling "I Survived the 1.5" (as in earthquake magnitude) T-shirts.
So what are the sensors showing?
"We did record an earthquake Thursday night," Greg Waite, a Michigan Technological University geologist told msnbc.com on Monday. "It was very small, less than magnitude 0.5," he said, but "there were several calls to the authorities in Clintonville at about that time reporting booming sounds."
City Administrator Lisa Kuss told msnbc.com that residents continue to be concerned "because we keep having smaller events."
On March 22, Kuss declared "the mystery is solved" after the U.S. Geological Survey detected a 1.5-magnitude tremor at 12:16 a.m. on March 20 in Clintonville, population 4,500.
"In other places in the United States, a 1.5 earthquake would not be felt," she said a town meeting. "But the type of rock Wisconsin has transmits seismic energy very well."
Listen to audio of a March 24 'boom'
Town map of where booms were reported heard
Some residents refuse to believe the booms are from the 1.5-magnitude quake and smaller tremors, and they have some scientific support.
Paul Caruso, a USGS scientist, noted that while earthquakes can trigger an underground sonic boom, he didn't think the recent quake was large enough to do that.
"To be honest, I'm skeptical that there'd be a sound report associated with such a small earthquake, but it's possible," he told The Associated said shortly after the March 20 quake was detected.
Last Thursday, four seismometers and four infrasound sensors were installed to see if the sounds can be tied definitively to tremors.
"The USGS will issue authoritative earthquake location and magnitude information for all future earthquakes," Waite said. "If the swarm continues, I hope to be able to say something about why they are occurring and how they are generating audible sound."
Clintonville, for its part, hopes to make a little "civic improvement" cash out of its saga. Kuss estimated that by Monday morning some 500 T-shirts had been ordered, some even from out of state. The town clears about $5 a shirt.
"The profits from these shirts will be used to beautify or enhance something in our City as determined by the Mayor at a later date," the town says on its website. "This is not meant to make light of a serious situation but to show that we, as a community, came together to get through the events."
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Sounds like gas releases underground, like the plumbing booms I hear in my pipes at times. When you disturb the deep, it reacts back...
That's not a quake. That's my 9 month old nephew taking a dump
It's just Wisconsin passing gas from all the GOP candidates being in town.
Ah Ha! Now we know. The stench has even reached Madison. How old is your nephew based on the Mayan calandar. Should we be preparing for the worst?
They will rebuild, and go on, somehow.
Signed,
-California
LOL
It's the secret societies building a massive underground city for the Dec 2012 apocalypse.
A large truck going down the street is a 1.5. A freight train speeding down the tracks near my house. So, a 1.5 is me vacuuming the carpet. When it bigger then 3.0 then start selling t-shirts.
It's obviously HAARP assisting the secret government program to dig giant underground concentration camps for when Bush takes over using FEMA's Bluebeam plan to activate the Roswell flying saucer, which he will then use to launch thermite mini-nuke satellite hologram cruise missiles at the World Trade Center. Duh.
BAHAHA. Maybe this is part of the underground hypersonic subway system (TAUSS) the "Greys" use to transport the human slaves.
If this is a swarm, it is very close to the eastern edge of the super caldera that surrounds Yellowstone
The hell are you talking about? It's at least 1000 miles away from the Yellowstone caldera. Where did you learn geography?
Phil-673639 - Pay attention. I'll type this slowly because you probably can't read fast -
It's in WISCONSIN, not WYOMING.
How surprising. <rolls eyes>
Dead on, Wake. I was waiting for this story, even if the booming had stopped. Without a doubt (proved here) the media will call the experts liars if they need to, to turn this into a "mystery" and perpetuate a story readers will click on, as they did with the dead birds dropping from the sky. Remember that one? They searched the world over for dying flocks of birds, to continue their "Armageddon" controversy even as scientists all agreed it was normal occurrence in nature. I expect no less here with Clintonville. And it goes without saying that there will be residents and non-residents who will perpetuate all types of conspiracy theories looking for the indulging interview and their three minutes of fame. Don't believe me? Check out post # 7 below.
Eliminate all this bull and get to the point. Zimmerman is guilty of 1st degree murder. Once again this goes to show how evil some people are and they know who they are. They have been violent all the years of being on this earth. The law works for certain races and people, which is nothing new in this society.
And this has to do with "booms" in this town in what way, shape, or form? Of course, based on your post, I guess you probably don't care as long as you can get your bigoted screed out there.
Anthony!!
Is this absolutely necessary? If you're interested about speaking about the Zimmerman/Trayvon case there are 50 million other places to do so on MSNBC alone.
This is an epic event about an earthquake in a small town called Clintonville and how the people feared for their lives. I don't know if you read the part but just in case you didn't know it was measured at a 1.5 magnitude (huge)!!!!!Stick to the story
Glad everyone is ok.
It makes me really sad, because we know Anthony votes.
If he can't comment on the right article, what makes anybody think he can make a good choice in other aspects of his life.
*facedesk*
Anthony Glass Eye Ellis
so true, Zimmerman's actions ruined the harmony of the planet - which set off those earthquakes
I like how even local politicians will spin the findings. The mystery is "solved"! Unless of course you actually read what the scientists say which is this "might" be what is causing the booms. Face it folks, you don't know for sure, you hope to find out, but you may never know but as far as you can tell it isn't dangerous. That would have been telling the people the truth.
Do you people in California and Alaska, or anywhere else that has earthquakes, hear this type of "boom" sound? btw...@ JustSlapMe Thanks for the laugh!
Usually, the big quakes in places like California and Alaska roar; you can't discern individual booms.
In California or Alaska, they have a name for magnitude 1.5 earthquakes. They called the last one "Thursday".
I was in Tennessee in '96 attending a geologic field camp. we were being instructed outside when we geard a boom and a small shake. I knew it was an earthquake having been in many in my 8 years in california. The earthquake was a 3.5 or so 10 miles away.
Last December 31st there was a 4.0 eathhquake in Northeast Ohio. The shaking lasted for five seconds or less. While the shaking was going on, the ground made a rumbling noise that sounded like thunder off in the distance.
Most Scientists can't even tie their shoes. haha
We think we solved it lets sell t-shirts now hopefully they won't notice we didn't do anything else
I thought two weeks ago, they determined the sounds were not from earthquakes. Fishy...
CLINTONVILLE !!!it's probably Monica Lewinski falling off the desk !!!
I bet you were freakin hilarious in 1998.
Well, there are some grounds to be skeptical. For one, Clintonville is the home of FWD, which pioneered the 4 Wheel Drive truck, and which was a large military contractor from 1909 until 2003. They invented the 4 wheel drive system which was the basis for all military vehicles for more than a century. The plant is now mothballed, but not dismantled. Who knows what's underneath?
Second, northern Wisconsin was the site of the Navy's ELF transmitter, which used ground conductivity to create an enormous subterranian antenna used to contact submerged submarines. The Wisconsin end of the antenna, which was 32 miles long, was further north. However, an ELF transmitter transforms the bedrock into a resonater at 76 hz, which can travel enormous distances through rock, using....you guessed it...vibrations. The Wisconsin terminus was decommissioned in 2005.
We think.
Sounds like the tremors the T.Rex did in Jurassic Park.
You Know what this means, Dinosaurs are baaaack!
LOL
Why in the Hell did the author feel they had to comment on the color of these people hearing the booms? I don't care if only Blacks are hearing the noises. Shame on MSN...
/yawn
'"In other places in the United States, a 1.5 earthquake would not be felt," she said a town meeting.'
Do they actually pay people for this editing job? I would not want to pay the editor of this post (OR many others for that matter)! Did this editor graduate..........High School?
Makes me wonder WHY I WENT TO COLLEGE. I don't use grammar ythat badly and this isn't even remotely close to major. Metoerologist and Blog/Webpage editors = I don't need to be THAT accurate to keep my job.
"she (say) a town meeting" and I say "she said at the town meeting".
What would you say, besides "that's Horrible!"?
I don't know much about the geology of that particular area, but I know that in the ordinary course of things, 1.5 Richter events are not usually even noticed. Also, from how the sounds are described, it sounds more like something that would have resulted from underground mining or "fracking", but without knowledge of the geology of the area I don't know if there even are such things going on in the area now or in the past. Sounds like it needs more study. I know that at one point it was considered optimal to have the sensors at least five miles from any active railroad tracks and three miles from any major highways, as the sensors are that sensitive.
no fracking out there. this is a tectonic event. if you want to learn more about earthquakes and volcanoes, i suggest volcanoscience.blogspot.com. the guy is really good at covering important events and has a lot of info!
Not an area known for seismic activity. Hope it's not part of a major developing trend. Very far from any previously known or suspected plate boundries or subduction zones.
My wife and I were recently on vacation on the north shore of Oahu at Turtle Bay resort. While on the beach, we heard the exact same sound as the attached audio from Clintonville. At first, we thought one of the military bases on the island had an aircraft that broke the sound barrier or perhaps exploded some type of ordinance. All of the locals told us they never hear that type of sound from the military training and exercises performed on the island. None of them knew what the sound was. Could the same thing be happening in Hawai'i that is occuring in Wisconsin? There are other areas in the continental U.S. that have recorded these "boom" sounds as well, such as South Dakota and Pennsylvania. Very curious.
Dude, Hawaii has volcanoes. You're going to have quakes. You have them every day...
Yeah Dude, that certainly explains the ones in South Dakota and Pennsylvania......Putz.
So did they check the older seismic data to see if the 1.5 or so quakes were happening before the people started hearing booms, or did it start at the same time? I missed it if that was mentioned.
Come on, a 1.5 is not an "unsurvivable" event. Being from CA, I LAUGH at the people who think a 1.5 quake is t-shirt worthy. I "survived" a 7.2 mag quake on Easter of 2010. I saw the ground ripple. Bunch of straight up p*$$13s out there I tell you!
Yes, let's let the EXPERT explain it all. And SO eloquently I might add!
This same thing happened in Spokane about 10 years ago.
Turned out we were having very shallow quakes about the same seismic reading as this one, and that the Spokane River is actually a fault line. Shallow quakes make a lot of noise.
Who knew? We'd always been told we "didn't have earthquakes" here.
But I guess if you live on the Earth...you can have earthquakes...anywhere.
Some farmers dynamite shed was raided by a bunch of rowdy teenage boys who have conveted it into a bunch of M-80 or M-120 firecrackers. My theory is as good as any the experts have come up with,in my opinion anyway.;-)
Okay, all I heard on their recording was a few clicks and some heavy breathing from whoever was holding the microphone. There was kind of a high-pitched squeak towards the end and some indistinct voices. What was I supposed to hear?
I wish folks would stop "rating" earthquakes simply on the Richter scale. The damage earthquakes can do is not only attributable to their intensity, but the depth at which they occur, the geological makeup of the local terrain, etc. How often a quake occurs can have some effect as well. The recent earthquake in Central Virginia was derided by some in places like California as being, "like every Thursday", and, on the Richter scale, compared to the seismic activity in California, maybe it was. But, you've got to consider that that "little" earthquake did significant damage to the National Cathedral and Washington Monument in D.C. (some miles away) and damaged almost every school building in Louisa County, Virginia beyond repair, not to mention making a lot of people very nervous about a nuclear power plant that the quake knocked offline.
Oh, for "J in wis", the last quake (our "big one", I hope) in Virginia, sounded like a low-flying Sea Stallion helicopter, a roar, but one that didn't go away as fast as a moving aircraft would produce. The last one before that was a "bang", like a large empty dump or coal truck driving to fast over a speed bump. So yeah, earthquakes don't have to be a rumble - they can definitely "bang".
Thanks, very interesting. I had no idea what they would sound like. I guess I assumed it was more of a rumble if any sound at all.
When we had our earthquake in November it didn't sound like that. It sounded more like two big military helicopters flying over and then we realized that wasn't it. A loud rumble and the entire house started shaking. We had another one two days later and there was no noise until the house started shaking. Nothing since, thank Goodness. Very unnerving if you're not used to it.