100% Off Topic - Skyquakes???

[kteague]

Ok, here's something weird. A family member was awakened around 3am PST to a noise outside he said words were inadequate to describe, as it didn't sound like anything he'd ever heard in life, almost otherworldly. His best description was a loud but distant gutteral groan with an almost metallic grind. I didn't find out about what he heard till morning, though I had woke up just minutes after he said it happened, as did my granddaughter. Not sure if the noise woke us or not, but neither of us consciously heard it. Doing a little online research today he found his experience is not too uncommon. There's even YouTube vids where the sound was captured live. There are theories galore, including military activity, even scientific explanations about the earth's axis, shifting of the earth's plates, electronic fields, etc. There's even a nickname of "sky quakes". Anyone here ever experienced this phenomenon?

[jen4700]

Sounds like the beginning of a very good sci-fi novel!

[kteague]

Sounds like the beginning of a very good sci-fi novel!

LOL True! It's made for fascinating reading today - nonfiction that is.

[archangle]

Aliens!

[sylvie]

It's Gabriel's trumpet.

[Suzjohnson]

I understand that these are actually the sound of the ground shifting along fault lines, but more of a sliding rather than jolting kind of earthquake. I was raised in earthquake country and still believe the groaning would unnerve me. Just give me a good shake, rattle and roll and get it over with.

Suz

[jen4700]

Suz has a point. I lived in CA for several years and experienced several quakes. And was at the epicenter of one even tho it was small.

There IS a noise that precedes the shaking. It is very creepy. I'm not sure why they would be called skyquakes, tho.

[rosacer]

kteague

Did you check if it was a earthquake in the area at that time? Did you feel some kind of trembling?

I remember once I was sleeping and I was woke up because of the ground trembling although it was a very small earthquake happening at several hours of distance from my place. I didn't hear any sound though.

If it is true the noise is due to shifting earth plates and there is only the noise and no movement we feel I hope the plates are not bending and keeping all the energy stored because if that's the case it could do a phenomenal earthquake the day all that will unlatch.

[Beckah54]

I had never heard of skyquakes.

I listened to a couple YouTube videos and the sounds recorded were unnerving, to say the least. I imagine if I heard those at 3 AM, I would be scared to death. Some of the websites I visited link the sounds to the end of the Mayan calendar and the apocalypse, some to shifting plates, etc.

Thanks for posting about this, very interesting.

[chearyshe]

Here in this wonderful language challenged country there are 2 terms for what you described. One is an earthquake, when the earth does a "shake, rattle and roll" and the other is called a (loosely translated) a noisequake, where it sounds like a BIG TANK is rolling on your lawn, towards your house/through your house. This is usually followed by the classic shake, but not always. Quakes happen daily here but 99% of them aren't felt. Let's not forget about Joshua who "fid the battle of Jericho" with the resulting falling wall!

cheary!!

[ekubaskie]

Since we're so far off topic - this will get you movin & shakin! They have a great guitar rendition of "Jericho"; the Meshugga Beach Party on their album "Let's go Shleppin". Jewish Surf Guitar! http://www.last.fm/music/Meshugga+Beach ... o+Shleppin'!

[SolSionnach]

I haven't heard anything like that, but I have heard *OF* such things. Truly creepy. I vote for Gabriel's trumpet.

Edited to add: I'd give anything to hear that in person!

[sylvie]

Revelations 8

1 When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. 3 And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer; and he was given much incense to mingle with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne; 4 and the smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God. 5 Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth; and there were peals of thunder, voices, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake. 6 Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets made ready to blow them. 7 The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, which fell on the earth; and a third of the earth was burnt up, and a third of the trees were burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. 8 The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea; 9 and a third of the sea became blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. 10 The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the fountains of water. 11 The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died of the water, because it was made bitter. 12 The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light was darkened; a third of the day was kept from shining, and likewise a third of the night. 13 Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice, as it flew in midheaven, "Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets which the three angels are about to blow!"

[Goofproof]

CHICKEN LITTLE, may have been correct after all! Jim

[archangle]

I love this kind of stuff.

If it happens again, grab a camera and make a video/audio recording. See how many witnesses, over how large an area, etc. How long, how loud, etc. were they? Let us know if they happen again.

There was a "Red States" movie last year that got a lot of talk with some of the weirder groups on the interwebs. Some spooky noises like that were part of it. It was a religious cult/horror/conspiracy low budget weird movie with a lot of "underground" aspects.

After that, there were a bunch of really neat "skyquake" videos on youtube last year. They were long, booming sounds like something echoing inside some sort of big tube like a culvert. Someone listened to a bunch of them and found that most of them were fakes. They took the noises from one video and copied them into another video. There were some particular unique "non quake" noises like something moving in the background or unique bird sounds that were the same on multiple videos.

Of course, there might have been one or two "real" videos and some copycat fakes.

You might send them some youtube "skyquake" links and see if it sounded anything like that.

The noises on the videos I heard were really spooky, but are something that's really easy to fake. There's a neat toy called a "thundertube" that makes very similar noises, but not loud noises heard over a large area, unless you get some kind of amplifier. You could make a neat fake video noise, though. You could probably make some kind of big noisemaker like that if you wanted to screw with people.

Power lines and guy wires can make some weird sounds in the wind. The sounds on the videos sounded to me like something you might get in a gas pipeline, sort of like a gigantic organ pipe. Or wind blowing in a cave opening or culvert.