What are those booms I sometimes hear before or during an earthquake?
"Booms" have been reported for a long time, and they tend to occur more in the Northeastern US and along the East Coast. Of course, most "booms" that people hear or experience are actually some type of cultural noise, such as some type of explosion, a large vehicle going by, or sometimes a sonic boom, but there have been many reports of "booms" that cannot be explained by man-made sources. No one knows for sure, but scientists speculate that these "booms" are probably small shallow earthquakes that are too small to be recorded, but large enough to be felt by people nearby.
Large sonic booms can be recorded on the seismic instruments and have lead to some interesting observations.
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Related
Can you feel an earthquake if you're in a cave? Is it safer to be in a cave during an earthquake? Can you feel an earthquake if you're in a cave? Is it safer to be in a cave during an earthquake?
There is nothing different about a cave that would make it immune to the shaking from an earthquake. Just as there are safer and less safe places to be on the surface of the earth during an earthquake, there are also various characteristics inside caves that make some cave locations safer or less safe than others. First of all, whether or not you feel an earthquake in a cave depends chiefly upon...
What are earthquake lights? What are earthquake lights?
Phenomena such as sheet lightning, balls of light, streamers, and steady glows, reported in association with earthquakes are called earthquake lights (EQL). Geophysicists differ on the extent to which they think that individual reports of unusual lighting near the time and epicenter of an earthquake actually represent EQL: some doubt that any of the reports constitute solid evidence for EQL...
How does the USGS tell the difference between an earthquake and a sonic boom? How does the USGS tell the difference between an earthquake and a sonic boom?
Steps to identification of a sonic boom: The USGS sees either nothing on our seismic records or a fairly short high-frequency signal that doesn't look like an earthquake. On rare occasions, we see the event on multiple stations, and the time difference between stations matches the speed of sound in air, which is slower than the speed of seismic waves in rock. Felt reports come from a wide area...
Related
Can you feel an earthquake if you're in a cave? Is it safer to be in a cave during an earthquake? Can you feel an earthquake if you're in a cave? Is it safer to be in a cave during an earthquake?
There is nothing different about a cave that would make it immune to the shaking from an earthquake. Just as there are safer and less safe places to be on the surface of the earth during an earthquake, there are also various characteristics inside caves that make some cave locations safer or less safe than others. First of all, whether or not you feel an earthquake in a cave depends chiefly upon...
What are earthquake lights? What are earthquake lights?
Phenomena such as sheet lightning, balls of light, streamers, and steady glows, reported in association with earthquakes are called earthquake lights (EQL). Geophysicists differ on the extent to which they think that individual reports of unusual lighting near the time and epicenter of an earthquake actually represent EQL: some doubt that any of the reports constitute solid evidence for EQL...
How does the USGS tell the difference between an earthquake and a sonic boom? How does the USGS tell the difference between an earthquake and a sonic boom?
Steps to identification of a sonic boom: The USGS sees either nothing on our seismic records or a fairly short high-frequency signal that doesn't look like an earthquake. On rare occasions, we see the event on multiple stations, and the time difference between stations matches the speed of sound in air, which is slower than the speed of seismic waves in rock. Felt reports come from a wide area...