In places such as Upstate New York is a phenomenon call a “frostquake” (or crysoseism), whereby the heaviness and motion of frozen water at the surface cause what sounds like subterranean rumblings.
That has been put forth as one explanation for the many reports, during the past two decades, of loud strange rumblings, grinding, and booms around the world.
We have reported on these before (see here and here and here.): the many reports not just of rumbles or booms but also in some cases a metallic-like scraping that seems to be coming from deep below, or trumpet-like groans and moans from the atmosphere, which still others say might be “skyquakes”: sound generated by atmospheric phenomena such as the northern lights. It has been said in some cases to be like the noise a snow plow would make scraping the asphalt on a bare street.
The problem with such explanations is that the reverberations have occurred at times of the year when there’s no frost or snow, and in places around the world, including Florida, that don’t experience that anytime of the year. How about an unexplained event that causes the garage door at the home of a police officer to not just rattle but shake off its track?
Moreover, in one noteworthy case — in the Buffalo-Niagara area — the snow speculation might have held, had the event reported there been at a different time of the year (it was November of 2014 when it was reported, not deep winter). But more to the point, the eerie sounds, including loud bangs that caused dogs to go crazy, were generated not only in Western New York, but the breadth of the state and in fact across three thousand miles of Atlantic, to England and Scotland at the same time.
Noted News Corp Australia: “Mystery booming sounds have left people baffled all over the planet. The terrifying noises have been recorded everywhere from the Middle East to the East Midlands this year and Australia — with the majority heard on America’s eastern coast. The latest boom came to light this week scaring residents in the U.S. state of Alabama.”
Added the Mother Nature Network: “Something very strange is going on, and it seems to be happening all around our planet. Reports continue to emerge of booming sounds of mysterious origin echoing from the sky, from Colorado and Alabama to the Middle East, United Kingdom and Australia. The sounds, understandably startling for those who hear them, are certainly not the voices of gods, although their source has thus far defied scientific explanation as well. A recent example occurred in Alabama, when a thunderous noise shook houses and frightened residents on November 20. Not long after, explosion-like sounds were also heard in Colorado, although officials now believe that the Colorado clamor was unrelated to the worldwide phenomenon, likely caused by oil and gas extraction.”
Another possibility: meteors — though this hardly explains the majority of such reports. That there can be an interplay between the natural and supernatural was aptly demonstrated with the Star of Bethlehem (to take the example of the sky, at Jesus’ birth) and the ground (when a quake tore the Temple veil at the moment of Christ’s death).
You can hear some of the sounds below. An ethereal horn, announcing something — warning — like the shofars of ancient Israel?
There are those who say it’s secret government aircraft testing. Others say it’s not a sonic boom, but far below the surface, even, as with the cop, causing homes to vibrate, and leading them to wonder if there is some kind of secret drilling, tunneling, or mining project across America.
That doesn’t seem very plausible, but neither do other conjectures. The allegements are not only in a couple dozen states, but, as indicated above, Canada, England, Ukraine, Mexico, and South America.
Might it be the core of the earth shifting or reconfiguring, as the magnetic poles shift (which we know they are doing — having moved from the “north pole” to northern Siberia?
The imagination can run amuck. Aliens? Demonic forces? A spiritual sign?
(Noted one prophecy in 1990, leading up to chastisements would be “a warning that involves not fire from the sky but fear of fire from the sky, and strange loud rumblings.”
It is something to speculate about, at this time of year when we have a bit of time for just such arcane rumination — as the world spins relentlessly on but as we take a bit of a pause.