Mysterious loud boom puzzles people, experts across the globe

Experts unable to trace source behind the spontaneous sound

Mysterious loud booms have been heard across the globe, leaving people and experts baffled, according to media reports.

The spontaneous sound, nicknamed as “Bama Boom”, has been recorded from Middle East to East Midlands to Australia – majority on American eastern coast.

On Wednesday, the Daily Mail had reported that a loud boom left experts puzzled with possible reasons ranging from supersonic aircraft to explosion of meteors in the atmosphere.



Last week, booms were reported from the United State’s Alabama and Idaho. "Loud boom heard: we do not see anything indicating large fire/smoke on radar or satellite; nothing on USGS [United States Geological Survey] indicating an earthquake," the Birmingham National Weather Service said in a tweet.

Re: loud boom heard: we do not see anything indicating large fire/smoke on radar or satellite; nothing on USGS indicating an earthquake. We don't have an answer, and can only hypothesize with you. 1) sonic boom from aircraft; 2) meteorite w/ current Leonid shower?

— NWS Birmingham (@NWSBirmingham) November 14, 2017

But the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) thinks differently. ABC 3340, a TV station, quoted Bill Cooke, head of the Nasa’s Meteoroid Environment Office, as saying that the sound could “have been caused by a supersonic aircraft, a ground explosion, or a bolide - a large meteor that explodes in the atmosphere unrelated to the Leonid shower”.

He said Nasa's meteor scientists will continue to analyse new data in hopes of determining the cause of the boom.

The US Geological Survey also picked up the noise, noting that it was not due to an earthquake. It may have been caused by a military flight by a supersonic jet, however, US Air Force has not confirmed it yet.

This is not the first time such mysterious sound has been recorded, about 64 booms have been heard worldwide this year alone.



News.com.au reported a similar sound was heard in Cairns in October – with may assuming it belongs to an FA-18 Hornet plane. Two weeks later another was heard over the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia at the same time as a blue meteor passed.

"It just got bigger and bigger and it was just this big flash across the sky and there were sparks coming off it," Port Lincoln local Lisa Watson was quoted by News Corp. "I pulled up home and I heard two massive bangs, maybe a second apart, and then the sky lit up again. I just felt the whole earth shake twice," he added.