[meteorite-list] Sonic Booms Likely Cause of Rattling in Mississippi

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2006 13:37:03 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <200612082137.NAA17052_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.gulflive.com/news/mississippipress/index.ssf?/base/news/1165490223126390.xml

Sonic booms likely cause of rattling
The Mississippi Press
By BRAD CROCKER
December 7, 2006

PASCAGOULA -- Many Jackson County residents felt the earth shake and
rumble for several seconds Wednesday morning, creating a myriad of
suspicions as to what had happened, but officials believe sonic booms
from jets may have been the cause.

Civil Defense Director Butch Loper said about 10 a.m. two loud noises
that shook houses, windows and the ground were reported throughout the
county.

Loper said deputies were dispatched but no explosions were reported at
any local industries, which prompted Loper to then call local airports
in Pascagoula, Gulfport and Mobile, as well as Keesler Air Force Base in
Biloxi and the National Weather Service.

Local police departments, including Mobile, and other agencies received
numerous calls from citizens about the noise.

"It was pretty widespread," Loper said.

Last year, a sonic boom from jets from Pensacola Naval Air Station
conducting high-altitude exercises over the Gulf of Mexico caused a
similar quake that was felt in the county.

Loper believes that is what could have happened Wednesday.

"That's the only thing we can attribute this one to. We can't find
anything on the map," he said.

Scott Ankerson said he was working near the Pascagoula Beach when he
felt the boom.

"There was a shake. It felt like an earthquake and then it make a deep
bass-like rumbling sound," Ankerson said.

Loper said he could not hear or feel the booms from his office,
protected with 3-foot thick brick walls in downtown Pascagoula, but said
he heard from plenty of people who did.

"We talked to a lot of people and they told us, 'We felt it, we heard
it, but we don't know what it was,'" Loper said.

No official NAS Pensacola representative was available at press time to
confirm whether exercises were taking place in the area.
Received on Fri 08 Dec 2006 04:37:03 PM PST