Introduction
Skyquakes are atmospheric acoustic events characterized by sudden, loud noises perceived as originating overhead rather than from obvious terrestrial sources. Observers typically describe an abrupt, forceful sound—most often a sharp “bang” or a brassy, horn‑like blast—that stands out clearly from ambient noise. The acoustic energy of these events can couple into nearby buildings, producing perceptible vibrations transmitted through ceilings and walls and occasionally causing measurable structural oscillation. Witness reports commonly lack firm causal attribution, so the phenomenon is defined primarily by its sensory and physical signatures rather than by an agreed explanatory mechanism. Accounts occur worldwide but show repeated concentration near lakes and other bodies of water, suggesting a spatial association with aquatic environments. Documented occurrences span diverse regions, including the North Sea and the Ganges, and countries such as Canada, Colombia, Japan, Finland, Vanuatu, Australia, Italy, Ireland, India, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom, the United States, Mexico, Malaysia (notably Ipoh), Argentina (Tierra del Fuego), and Indonesia (notably Jakarta and Java).
Local names
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The phenomenon commonly termed a “skyquake” consists of sudden, loud booms or low-frequency rumblings heard at times when meteorological conditions—such as the absence of thunder-bearing clouds—make ordinary thunder unlikely. These impulsive sounds, likened by many observers to distant cannon fire or unusually loud thunder, have been reported from a wide range of settings, including coastal embayments, islands, freshwater lakes, riverine falls, and inland locations. The booms can be intense enough to produce perceptible shock effects at close range, rattling crockery and other lightweight objects in nearby buildings.
A long history of local nomenclature documents the phenomenon across languages and regions. Recorded toponyms and common names include Bangladesh: Barisal guns; France: “bombes de mer”, “canons de mer”; Indonesia: dentuman (lit. “clatter”) or suara tembakan meriam (lit. “the sound of cannon fire”); Italy: “brontidi”, “marina”, “balza”, “lagoni”, “bomba”, “rombo”, “boato”, “bonnito”, “mugghio”, “baturlio”, “tromba”, “rufa”; Japan: “uminari” (literally, “cries from the sea”); Netherlands and Belgium: “mistpoeffers”, “zeepoeffers”, “zeedoffers”, “mistbommen”, “gonzen”, “balken”, “onderaardse geruchten”; Philippines and Iran: “retumbos”; United States: “Guns of the Seneca” (around Seneca Lake and Cayuga Lake) and “Seneca guns” (also used in the Southeast US); Latin America and Spain: “cielomoto”; Canada: “seefahrts”; and other English variants such as “fog guns”, “mistpouffers”, and “waterguns”. These names often reflect local environmental associations—sea, fog, mist, lakes—or liken the sounds to artillery.
Documented reports span at least two centuries and multiple continents. An early recorded observation occurred during the Lewis and Clark expedition (1804) near the Great Falls, where expedition members compared the sound to the distant discharge of light artillery and explicitly noted their inability to identify its source. Subsequent reports appear throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—from an Adriatic island in 1824 to numerous accounts in Australia, Belgium, the Bay of Fundy and Passamaquoddy Bay (New Brunswick), Lough Neagh (Northern Ireland), Scotland, Cedar Keys (Florida), Franklinville (New York, 1896), and northern Georgia—indicating a broad geographic distribution across temperate to subtropical latitudes. Cultural interpretations are intertwined with place: Indigenous Haudenosaunee informants attributed the booms to the Great Spirit’s continuing work on the landscape, while anglophone toponyms such as “mistpouffers” and “Seneca guns” derive from consistent local occurrences (Seneca Lake) and were popularized in regional literature, for example James Fenimore Cooper’s 1850 story “The Lake Gun.” Together, the lexical variety, historical record, and environmental spread demonstrate that this unexplained acoustic phenomenon is both geographically widespread and deeply embedded in local environmental knowledge and folklore.
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Hypotheses for skyquake origins
Skyquakes are best understood as a suite of distinct phenomena rather than a single, uniform event: their long historical record and lack of a single reproducible mechanism indicate that different processes, acting in specific geographic and environmental settings, can produce similar audible “booming” effects.
Extraterrestrial and high‑velocity atmospheric sources include moderate meteors and meteoroids whose rapid passage or airburst in the lower atmosphere generates sonic booms and localized shock waves along their trajectories. Anthropogenic sources such as military ordnance or supersonic aircraft can also produce sharp pressure pulses, though aircraft explanations are inconsistent with accounts that predate supersonic flight; historical cannon fire supplies an earlier anthropogenic analogue.
Geologic and hydrologic mechanisms encompass a range of gas‑release and collapse processes. Sudden liberation or ignition of subsurface or seafloor gases—originating in shallow vents, fault and fracture systems, volcanic regions, or biogenic accumulations—can produce audible booms when pressure is rapidly released. In deep, organically enriched lakes (for example, Cayuga and Seneca Lakes), methane and other biogases generated in long‑accumulated sediments may episodically vent to the water column. In carbonate terrains, diagenetic or decay processes in submerged limestone and underwater cave systems can yield gas buildups whose abrupt escape, or the mechanical collapse of caves, can produce pressure pulses that travel through water to shorelines as audible explosions.
Seismic, cryospheric and mass‑movement sources can be locally important. Shallow earthquakes sometimes radiate sound‑dominant energy with little felt ground motion, producing booms audible near the epicenter. Large avalanches or rapid snow/rock slides generate low‑frequency, impulsive sounds, especially when channeled through narrow valleys that amplify acoustic energy.
Coastal and atmospheric propagation effects further broaden plausible causes. Coherent breaking wave trains on rocky shores produce low‑frequency noise that propagates long distances with little attenuation; distant thunder, intense wind‑related damage, or other meteorological events can also create loud acoustic events. Atmospheric ducting and other propagation phenomena can carry such sounds far from their source, producing apparent “mystery” booms in locations remote from the generating event.
More speculative hypotheses invoke solar, magnetospheric or magnetohydrodynamic interactions. While solar events such as coronal mass ejections generate plasma shock phenomena in space and drive geomagnetic disturbances, there is no demonstrated mechanism by which these processes produce abrupt, forceful atmospheric pressure waves capable of creating terrestrial booms. Proposed electromagnetic or magnetic‑resonance coupling to the atmosphere remains unproven.
Because multiple mechanisms can yield similar acoustic signatures, rigorous attribution of any particular skyquake requires corroborating environmental, geophysical, or observational evidence tied to the local context.