Mysterious booms in Eureka, California

Are there a lot of teenagers in the area?

In the smaller towns and such they tend to get bored with no party's or distractions, so blow things up and experiment. I wont go into the details of what the police found in parks in areas I've lived in, but general mischief should be kept in mind if you have that demographic around with nothing better to do.

Biigs
Are there a lot of teenagers in the area?

In the smaller towns and such they tend to blow things up and experiment. I wont go into the details of what the police found in parks in areas I've lived in, but general mischief should be kept in mind.

But don't you think that something as dangerous as teenagers playing with explosives would have gotten some attention from local officials. You think after two months they'd be ignoring it? Locals would have looked into it by now and found some evidence of it and then came out with some sort of public warning about the dangers and what parents or neighbors need to look out for. Well, IMO anyways.

reply to post by Rezlooper


There are plenty of bad smells in the community, but nothing like rotten egg, as far as I know!

dlbott
reply to post by Astrithr

 

Have you heard other noises. I am close to military base so booms are common and would be hard to differentiate. But have heard some other strange sounds like today. It hard to explain, kinda semi high pitch machine type sound. It was very strange and loud, it was probably coincidence but it was coming directly from the area where the sun.

That kinda freaked me out. Very strange.

The Bot

Sounds like jet fighters doing target practice - they have Gatling guns. Those guns make a fast "vvvvvvvv" sound. In Europe the fighter planes practice target runs over farmhouses and other rural properties. Scares the beegees out of our cats and myself when they make that "vrrrroooooppppp" sound.

reply to post by stormcell


Guns firing at a high rate of fire/speed to not make booms.

High pressure waves at altitude do, sonic booms, thunder, explosions - things that aggressively expand beyond the speed of sound, boom. The effect travels over a large but focused area, as once the angel and amplitude gets to weak, the sound is directed up - resulting in a lower effected zone (even those the sonic blast zone technically is bigger)

Things that don't exceed the sound that are low level, sounds that boom are large underground or on ground impacts resulting in mass hitting mass connected to the ground for the vibrations to propagate. Some those waves hit building they create reverberations within air space cavity's (like your room) making the shock wave sound deeper than the organizational frequency.

Exploding meteorites is the probable cause.

Eventhough reports are coming from a central location does NOT mean every occurrence is happening locally.
I witnessed the LaPaz, Bahia California meteorites from 800 miles away.. and was sure the event was local with loud boom, shockwave pushing you hard in the wave direction.
Camp Pendleton is in the line of sight of LaPaz...but just one loud boom per day NEVER happens...NEVER.

How do these booms stack up with recent 'quakes out there? Do any of the times mesh within a reasonable time-frame range? I would seriously consider digging in to EQ and boom times, and maybe even magnitude & loudness/force of the booms, and seeing if there's a discernible pattern to be found. It could be precursors to something bigger, just a thought.

reply to post by Astrithr


I used to live in Eureka/Arcata, went to HSU and worked for a number of years at a lab there so I am familiar with the territory.

The fact that someone from Trinidad hasn't heard any of these booms probably rules out meteors/asteroids or earth tremors and pops, as those would tend to be seen, felt, and heard for many miles.

Flashes of light and smoke being seen, without any evidence of trails in the sky...I am with PennyLemon, I think it might be some industrious students playing around with fire. School started just before Sept. 8, which is when the first booms were reported, and the location mentioned by one poster of an explosion north of Bayview, possibly near the North jetty is legit...because...well, when *I* was a student, I used to head out to the Somoa dunes there and shoot guns and blow stuff up myself (we need a sheepish icon!).

There is/was a gun range somewhere around Samoa on the North side of the main road that is near a beach and it is easy to sneak into. Not many people live close by, and not many police patrols go there - and even if they did, it would be really easy to evade them on foot because you can just walk the beach for miles. And, it was also a notorious party spot. A classic place for school kids to go party, smoke some J's, and blow (up) some reefs...I'd go fingerprint the entire Chemistry department, myself!

reply to post by Nyiah


I am sticking with the Tannerite theory.

I don't classify young adults as teenagers. Young adults are kids in their early 20's.

The area is apparently full of Meth labs and hidden Marijuana fields due to the reports I have read. Just the type of young adults that lack a steady cash flow.

I was introduced to Tannerite by a friend in the Military. They purchased the items needed separately in large quantities so they could mix it themselves and make a bigger boom. Off duty of course... And in a safe area. Even "old folks do stupid silly things sometimes" Even an MRE heat packet is an explosive devise.

Legal market Tannerite link,
www.tannerite.com...

Young adults playing
www.youtube.com...

and most importantly... this link. If you choose to ignore the others... at least look at this one.

www.military.com...

Not really sure what to make of the last video link myself.

First off, these booms have been going on for months, so it would have to be a committed young adult or group of adults to maintain this charade for so long, if indeed these booms can be explained by the use of tannerite. Secondly, given the numerous reports over time and the fact that these explosions would have to leave a residue, I find it strange that no one has discovered such evidence. Also, is this stuff readily available? I'm totally ignorant here, but it would seem that large deliveries to one person or group might be detected.

reply to post by Astrithr


Project Aurora! I believe this is what is leaving the weird contrails in the sky as well as the loud boom. This could be a sound barrier being broken. Just a guess.

www.youtube.com...

www.youtube.com...

www.youtube.com...

gwynned
First off, these booms have been going on for months, so it would have to be a committed young adult or group of adults to maintain this charade for so long, if indeed these booms can be explained by the use of tannerite. Secondly, given the numerous reports over time and the fact that these explosions would have to leave a residue, I find it strange that no one has discovered such evidence. Also, is this stuff readily available? I'm totally ignorant here, but it would seem that large deliveries to one person or group might be detected.

I recently visited Eureka and didn't see you there! Can you account for your whereabouts
on each of these 'boom' days? And please don't play the 'totally ignorant' card again.
We deny ignorance here you know, so we definitely deny total ignorance. Totally!

gwynned
First off, these booms have been going on for months, so it would have to be a committed young adult or group of adults to maintain this charade for so long, if indeed these booms can be explained by the use of tannerite. Secondly, given the numerous reports over time and the fact that these explosions would have to leave a residue, I find it strange that no one has discovered such evidence. Also, is this stuff readily available? I'm totally ignorant here, but it would seem that large deliveries to one person or group might be detected.

Yes, Tannerite is readily available. If it isn't sold locally it can be ordered online. Larger quantities are usually purchased through ebay. The ones looking for a really big "Boom" will purchase the aluminum powder and ammonium nitrite separately and in bulk and then mix them. Smaller quantities that are prepackaged can also be purchased online or in most sporting good stores in my area. (I do not live in California so I do not know if it is available on shelves) But considering Tannerite originated in Oregon I am surprised more people in CA are not aware of it.

As I said before, my experience with it came from Military and LE friends. So for a period of time, there was a group of 30-40+ year olds blowing it up for fun in my area. So you basically had a group of friends going..oh Cool! I gotta get some to play with too! And then some kids found out about it and so on. Kids like to blow things up like cars... So if no one is finding evidence of blown up trees, cars ect.... So I retract my earlier assumption that it might be kids or young adults after careful consideration.

Most times the media will report it as earthquakes or other explanations just so kids don't see it and go "Cool! I gotta get some of that and try it too!"

Here is a news report that actually explains the cause of Booms all over the Country as Tannerite. But I get it is always more fun to report mysterious reasons.

www.wivb.com...

reply to post by Astrithr


Are there any factories that make jets in or around the area? Could be sonic booms although the flashes people are seeing wouldn't pertain to this (I don't believe)...asking because I live in TN and they make F-22 jets in GA (about 2 hours away) and they "use to" test them out over our town.

reply to post by Varhaard


Yes Varhaard, a sheepish icon would really be helpful here. That being said, the dunes south westish from Eureka and the Eel river bar have long been used for mayhem of various sorts and if you head east you will soon find yourself in the woods, also a place for unseen mayhem.

For those who have never been out this way, there are many reasons it's referred to as being behind the "Emerald curtain" and once you cross the Humboldt county line, or the Mendocino county line really, It's still pretty much the wild west out here. Even though some newcomers and retirees have tried to tame it.

If you Google Humboldt county and tannerite you will see a few videos illustrating that explosions are not just for kids anymore and in my experience out here it's the adults and often LEO who get the most bang for their buck so to speak, and tannerite tree stump removal kits are sold at the local sporting goods shop. Add this to any number of other explodable items that are probably laying around ( old propane tanks and such ) I can see how this kind of thing might easily become a habit.

As far as finding the culprits, unless someone spills the beans it's highly unlikely they will be caught anytime soon and searching the woods for evidence would literally be like looking for a needle in a thousand haystacks.

Penny

reply to post by Astrithr


could the booms have come the the sonic movement from the california geological plates they are know to do that in a seismically active zone.

reply to post by Astrithr


Return of the skyquakes, and Skunk Works just recently revealed some previously classified and interesting work on hypersonics... coincidence?

ya but your talking about somewhere near a base wondering if it is aerial or in the ground.

chrismg
reply to post by Astrithr

 

could the booms have come the the sonic movement from the california geological plates they are know to do that in a seismically active zone.

This explanation has been tossed about a bit and it would seem that the booms are fairly localized. As far as I know they have been heard as far north as Arcata and as far as Fortuna to the south. If these were geological on a larger scale they should be heard in Trinidad I would think.

We do have quite a few quarries locally but these are farther into the hills and farther north. There is also a large ordinance range to the north of Trinidad that is used twice a year or so but, while the sound is loud in Trinidad, it wouldn't carry all the way to Eureka (23 miles).

Penny

but if its occurring hundreds of kilometers beneath the surface it could just be following a line of a certain faultline.