Savanah Georgia region shaken by mystery ‘boom’ noise

March 16, 2012 – GEORGIA – WSAV is looking into reports of a “boom” felt across the region this morning. We checked with the Chatham Emergency Managemet Agency and the US Geological Survey. Neither reported any tremors in the area. The National Weather Service says there was no weather related activity in the area. As far as military bases, Hunter, Ft. Stewart and Beaufort Marine Corp Air Station all say it didn’t have anything to do with them. However, the Air National Guard says anytime military jets are training off the coast they can cause a sonic boom. And GEMA confirms that they’ve talked to the military and they do have some reports of training exercises going on. Here’s what some of you had to say on Facebook: “Malinda Naquin said: I’m in Richmond Hill and it sounded like it does when a hard storm is starting up, the roof kind of ‘popped’ and then the windows rattled. But, it was sunny so I figured it was a sonic boom. We hear Ft. Stewart all the time now, again, but usually that is lower in tone than this was.” “Teresa Gocial said: too many people from all around felt it, scared the crap outta me shook my house like something slammed into it..nothing like what I normally feel from Ft. Stewart.” “Dee Southworth said: Heard it and felt it on St. Simons. I thought one of our large live oaks fell near the house.” The USGS says, “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. As it turns out….there are many factors that contribute to the “sound’ that an earthquake makes. To begin to understand these factors we have to understand the different types of waves, the speed they travel through the earth, and the speed that sound travels through the air.” –WSAV 3