2:09 p.m.
The U.S. Geological Survey and Caltech are investigating whether a sonic boom is the likely cause of the latest round of mysterious window and door rattling in Orange County.
Residents across most of the county reported the rattling between 12:15 p.m. and 12:19 p.m. today. It’s not yet known whether the Navy or Marines have been flying supersonic F-18s off the coast.
“I was talking to (seismologist) Kate Hutton and she said she was getting reports of a possible sonic boom-like shaking just after noon,” said Bob Dollar, a seismologist with the U.S.G.S. “We’re looking into it.”
There have been no significant earthquakes in Southern California today. There was a 4.6 quake in the Gulf of California at 12:02 p.m., and many peope from Orange County reported feeling shaking from the event. But that’s likely an error, says Dollar.
“I’ve never heard of a quake of that size being felt that far away (more than 1,000 miles,” Dollar says.
Orange County experienced similar window and door rattling on March 3 and March 16. The precise cause of both events hasn’t been identified.
It also appears that the artillery fire going on at Camp Pendleton today didn’t cause the shaking.
Camp Pendleton issued a special advisory earlier this week saying that the base would be conducting round-the-clock artillery and high explosive exercises through Thursday that could produce sounds and vibrations felt up to 50 miles away — or all the way to the north end of Orange County.
Pendleton officials said such long distance vibrations would occur only if the “atmospheric conditions” were right. Usually, such vibrations and sounds travel farthest when there’s cloud cover and moisture in the air, says the National Weather Service. Most of the county is currently sunny. But clouds are expected to bring light showers later. There have been no significant earthquakes in Southern California today. (Click here for SoCal quake monitor.) It’s unknown if the Navy or Marines are flying F-18s close to the coastline today at speeds fast enough to produce a sonic boom.
The latest shaking has been reported by people in Newport Beach, Tustin, Laguna Beach, Mission Viejo, Trabuco Canyon, Ladera Ranch, Yorba Linda and Laguna Niguel.
Cindy McNatt, a Register reporter, said by instant message, “I live in a glass house (in Tustin) — so I was watching the glass rattle, but didn’t feel anything on the ground.”
Erika Ritchie, another Register reporter, said, “I was sitting in my house and the windows on the top floor started to shake so loudly that my dog barked because it sounded like someone was trying to force open a door. The bamboo floor also began shaking beneath me.
A reader named Nate from Lake Forest e-mailed to say, “At about 12:19 p.m., a big rumble shook our house. Thought it may be a tremor or a small earthquake. But not sure what’s up.”
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All of O.C. might hear or feel artillery fire from Camp Pendleton
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Felt the shaking in Laguna Niguel - rattled the windows and the pugs (barked for five minuted). Saw there was a 4.6 quake in Baja - I assume that wasn’t the cause?
i felt the tremor too and i was working in riverside?
heard something ,figured it was my kids .
I felt it in mission viejo at work and yelled “earthquake”… kinda strange. if that was really from pendelton i wonder how bad oceanside felt it?
I just came to check if we had an earthquake because my hubby and I felt it too sitting outside here in Yorba Linda. I twittered it and found a lot of others felt it too. Guess it wasn’t a quake then huh?
I felt it here in Lake Forest, a little before 12:20PM. The shaking grew in intensity, lasting 10-15 seconds and was accompanied by a loud, deep rumbling noise. Windows rattled, the house creaked, and I ran to grab my big-screen TV to keep it from toppling over, but nothing fell or broke. It sure felt like an earthquake, but I didn’t see any event reports from the USGS site that would validate it.
I think the government is testing interception techniques/missiles if and when North Korea decides to send the Missile armed and aimed at the West Coast of the US. I think The Government is doing something but not telling us in case of panick.
We felt it like an earthquake, two jolts, the 2nd one forced us into a doorway.
Heard / felt this clearly in Ladera.
This was not typical artillery from Pendleton, which I hear often. Artillery are distant repeating booms, this was a single tremor.
Either they are testing different explosives, or this is something else..
Felt it in Dove Canyon as described by others. My wife thought it was an earthquake but I thought not. Nice shake though.
Dozens of reports on the USGS website from Orange and San Diego counties re: the 4.6 quake in Baja. Not saying that this was the cause, but it was clearly felt over a wide area.
I live in San Diego (close to La Jolla) and felt it. The house jolted one time, then again immediately after but stronger. Funny thing is the ceiling fan chains did not move and the water sitting on my desk in a container did not move either.
The wood was creaking loudly, all the windows were shaking and it was loud. Sounded like a car crashed into the house.
The ceiling fans were eerily still, it felt nothing like an earthquake and it was over fairly quickly.
Lifelong southern California resident and I have never really been frightened. This “incident” though, my heart was pounding and I started calling family.
Family in Long Beach said they didn’t feel it but last night after 10pm two military jets flew over their home and they thought the planes were going to crash into their house it was so loud and scary.
Glad to see it here - that that maybe I was turning loony!
My wife called me to tell me she’d just felt an earthquake.
I was on the freeway and didn’t feel anything….
It sounds to me like the Pendleton activity is a cover story.
My money is on the SR-71 Blackbird replacement being tested, and they can’t get far enough away that it’s not felt.
On the other hand, it’s not the double-boom you normally associate with a sonic boom….
I’m in Tustin and didn’t feel anything or hear the windows, but I DID hear a deep, rumbling sound that lasted for a good 5-7 seconds. Shortly after that a friend of mine in Chino Hills said she thought she felt an Earthquake.
That’s a heck of a distance to hear or feel explosives from Camp Pendleton, so my guess is that it was a jet fly-by.
the big one coming and you have been warned
Between Camp Pendleton last night, the Disneyland fireworks, and the Angels’ fireworks ~ there was a lot of booming going on in Lake Forest. Go figure!
It’s more than likely some top-secret government testing of some sort…
I heard it while eating outside at my favorite mexican joint. It was around 12:17 becuase I looked at my phone after it happened. This was not artillery from Pendleton. It was almost like a change of air pressure and felt weird. Probably a skunk works project under going some testing.
Both my son and I felt it. We were sitting in the living room and the side of the house that faces west started to sound as if someone was outside pushing and pulling on the wall and windows. A few seconds later, there was a loud boom and then it was over. I did notice that I felt a slight pressure change in my eardrums during the event. It happened just about 12:15pm.
C.H.U.D. I tell ya. C.H.U.D. They’re coming.
Didn’t feel the ground shake in Irvine, more like heard it along with the windows rattling. It was a very strange sound, sort of like a pulse or heartbeat. I’ve been through countless earthquakes here in So. Cal, and this was not an earthquake. I’ve never heard that type of soundwave before.
I was outside at a car dealership at the El Toro Y area, I felt it in the ground and heard a deep boom, a pause, then another louder deep boom. It sounded like a sonic boom, but like another poster said not like the quick double sonic boom-boom; there was too much of a pause. A salesman thought it was an earthquake. The car I was looking at didn’t move. Later I talked with a salesman in a Mission Viejo store and they felt a quick jolt, like as in an earthquake.
Later, I’m hearing a couple thuds this afternoon in the Trabuco Canyon/Robinson Ranch area, but those could be the Camp Pendleton exercises.
I’ve experience lots of quakes and sonic booms and we’re rolling from side to side today.
Felt it here in North Tustin. Windows, doors and house started to rattle a bit as if it was the beginning of an earthquake. It lasted about 5-8 seconds.
Here in La Habra, was sitting in the living room with the windows opened and felt the air pressure thumping in and out as if a helicopter was traveling full speed at you close buy but did not feel any shaking. Very strange, something is going on
I heard/felt it too. I am in Rancho Santa Margarita.
I work in San Juan Capistrano I was outside walking on my lunch break and heard a really loud boom it hurt my ears I thought it was the beginning of an earthquake but there was no shaking. I did feel am weird pressure change in my ears too. I kind of had a slight headache after too.
I was at work when several of my co-workers and I felt it on the second floor of the building. My desk was shaking as well as the monitor. I watched for several seconds to see if the shaking would get stronger. This did NOT feel like a sonic boom.
UFO’s checking out the OC ?
…felt the shaking and thought it was just bad gas
My second story windows rattled in my home in AlisoViejo today at 12:18 PM. My dog was frightened, stared at the windows, jumped off the bed and ran to safety in the adjoining bath (This is the same spot where he sought refuge during the hour long blackout a few nights ago; his usual hiding spot). The rattling lasted for about 5 seconds.
Time to add to this wikipedia page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unexplained_booms
1) IT IS NOT AN EARTHQUAKE! USGS reported no quakes for any of these events and more importantly, no one reports any ground movement, they report, doors and windows rattle violently, but the water on the desk doesn’t move, nor the ceiling fan nor the chandelier.
2) It appears that each time this happened it has been 15 minutes after the hour. Is there some significance to this?
we were skating Mlk and it shook the park a bit.
My daughter and family felt and heard it out in Corona. I live in Buena Park and didn’t experience anything. Crazy!
HELLO???? I DONT GET IT..this isnt the first time….maybe a LIL warning? discuss amongst yerselves….I mean DANG!
I thought I was the only one who felt the air-pressure change around the same time. It never happens w/a sonic boom. Interesting.
To 5oclocksomewhere: Your comment was deleted because it was a pesonal attack and because it cast Jimmy Buffett in a bad light. That’s a no-no with Sciencedude.
Barfy: Why, yes, we are being checked out by UFOs.
Groop: Wow, a C.H.U.D. reference. Nicely done.
Harry Reid: TMI
SafeDriver: Yours is the most plausible explanation. I’m beginning to think this is a Skunk Works kind of thing.
Stephanie: Are you bragging about living in La Jolla? You’re trying to make us jealous, right? Beautiful town.
Beavis: USGS — and Butthead — says the 4.6 Baja quake was not the cause
I was sitting at my office desk at 12:15pm and the door started shaking almost like someone was aggressively trying to get in but didn’t know how to use the door handle. Simultaneously the window shades and mirrors were shaking and I heard a low growl (not unlike a semi truck idling) but the ground did not move or “roll” as is typical with an earthquake. It went on long enough to get me out of my chair and I stood in the door frame for a second. However, it was not an earthquake (or at least not a typical one) and they say there wasn’t anything from Pendleton today. It was similar to the sonic boom earlier this month except for the severe rattling of the door…very strange.
I wonder if it is camp pendelton doing some kind of practice bombings. When I was at my brothers in Lake Elsinore, it sounded just like a sonic boom, It rattled windows but the gtound never shook.
I guess it was an airquake.
I heard a rumble then the windows rattled strong in my office upstairs here in Yorba Linda at 12:16pm. I thought it was an earthquake as well but notthing on USGS. There is someone that knows the answer (I guess the military) to what has been going on around OC for the last couple months. I sure wish they would speak up and put some calm to these strange occurances.
My husband and I felt/heard it too, around 12:15 pm today. Searched on here just to see if there was any info, glad to see we weren’t the only ones and that we aren’t going crazy. He was outside in Lake Forest and felt the pressure change in his ears. I was in our apt in Aliso Viejo and felt what seemed like the whole building jolt, yet nothing inside moved. I felt the same sensation other people described where it seemed like the door was going to be sucked/blown off the hinges. Whatever it was, it was very strong. Have been through earthquakes before, and I agree this did not feel like those.
Did anyone notice that something similar was also experienced in and around Waco, TX? And as far as I can tell, it was around the same time taking the time difference into consideration. Maybe this is bigger than we think.
The sonic boom explanation doesn’t sound plausible to me. There was a period of a few seconds of minor rattling sounds before the main jolt. I don’t believe a sonic boom would have that characteristic.
At around 12:15pm in North County San Diego/Escondido I heard a loud rumbling. It was almost exactly the same as the one I heard in San Diego about this time in 2006.
Sitting in a classroom at USD everyone stopped and looked at each other, thinking earthquake, but the ground did not shake…this was different.
Having lived a stones throw from Camp Pendleton for three years, I’ve heard the sound of mortar rounds and artillery fire-nothing this loud.
I’ve been to airshows and a supersonic flyby sounded a lot like that, but I’ve never experienced it within a building or structure, so couldn’t definitively say that was the source.
All I can say is that April 4, 2006 and now today April 7, 2009 I experienced the loud noise, shaking of window-panes and doors all are referring to.
Today’s window shaking was much more severe and lasted a lot longer than the previous time last month. It was also a lot noisier. Sounded like 5-6 kids were running down the stairs at the same time. Not a minor incidence.
There were similar stories at tha same exact time in Arizona, New Mexico & Colorado. Was definately something in the sky.
Our office here in Irvine experienced a very sharp loud noise from our roof yesterday around the reported time. It sounded as if someone was jumping up and down on the roof. Our building is concrete so I can say for sure the ground nor the walls were moving during this time. Walked outside right after the event and other business owners were standing outside their business. In speaking to them they also said they experienced the same thing in their buildings. Not certain what this was however I think I am going to attribute it to the Santa theory.
Haven’t heard it said yet, so I’ll throw it out there:
Most skunk/phantom works speculation is probably closest to the mark. In any case, the Government PR people will stick to the script and contacting them for an explanation will yield only the most diluted of “plausible denial” accounts.
Gary R. is right, though - the Aurora technology has long been morphed. My money is on a modified Blackswift prototype being taken through its paces, or, the TR-3B, a nuclear powered, Mach 9+ black triangle most of us will not see in operation until many years after international theater deployment.
Consider this: what better way to test the boom-stifling stealth technology of experimental secret aircraft under development than to pass over an urban area not far from the test facility and then gauge reaction? Tweak a little here, adjust a few things there, and send her back up.
Wasn’t this latest “boomlet” significantly milder than the one on 3/18? Wasn’t the 3/18 rattling less than the one on 3/3? Just a thought - mere speculation, of course. But one possibility we can contemplate.
Of course, instead of examining and analyzing empirical evidence and forming hypotheses ourselves, we can just keep calling the Air Force P.R. folks for a storyline. They’ll certainly tell us the truth, right?
TR-3B. Look it up…
These strange booming sounds are being reported in other parts of the USA as well. Google it !
So, it would appear no one person or entity has a sound explanation for it.
Right after the 3/3 shaking, a bunch of cities up the coast reported similar unknown shaking…
hello I was reading all the comments, I will say you American get all work up for nothing,, why do you people always seem to take things the mystery way, in india we have all the jolts and the bolts and the occasional flying unidentified fyling objects but no one gets funny about it
felt a boom tonight, may 5, 2009, around 745pm in carlsbad, california. thought it might be an earthquake, just felt the roof shake and heard some strange deep thunderous noise. was different from an earthquake though, too short and precise. earthquakes usually rumble for a while in my experience.