A skyquake is a phenomenon where a loud sound is reported to originate from the sky. It often manifests as a banging, reoccurring thunderous rumbles (where no storms are active), sonic boom from jet engines (where there are no signs of aircraft), or a horn-like noise. The sound may cause noticeable effects on buildings, including vibration in ceilings or across the walls of a particular room. Those who experience skyquakes typically do not have a clear explanation for what caused them. As a result, they are sometimes perceived as mysterious or supernatural. They have been heard in several locations around the world, typically in areas close to lakes and other bodies of water. Reports of skyquakes have come from the North Sea, the Ganges, Canada, Colombia, Japan, Finland, Vanuatu, Australia, Italy, Ireland, India, The Netherlands, Norway, Tierra del Fuego in Argentina, the United Kingdom, the United States, Mexico, Malaysia (particularly Ipoh) and Indonesia (particularly Jakarta and Java).
Names (according to area) are:
In 1804, they were reportedly heard during the Lewis and Clark Expedition near Great Falls. Meriwether Lewis wrote, “[S]ince our arrival at the falls we have repeatedly witnessed a noise which proceeds from a direction a little to the N. of West as loud and resembling precisely the discharge of a piece of ordinance of 6 pounds at the distance of three miles.” William Clark added in his notes, “…a rumbling like Cannon at a great distance is heard to the west of us; the Cause we Can’t account.”
They have been reported from an Adriatic island in 1824; Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria in Australia; Belgium; frequently on calm summer days in the Bay of Fundy and Passamaquoddy Bay, New Brunswick, Canada; Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland; Scotland; Cedar Keys, Florida; Franklinville, New York in 1896; and northern Georgia in the United States.
Their origin has not been positively identified. Given the long time that they have been known and reported, but with no proposal experimentally confirmed, it seems likely that they occur for more than one reason. Proposed explanations have been: