Mysterious Booms Part 3: What Makes a Loud Boom ?

[If you wish, you can save some time and just cut to the final post which is concise and skeptical. See
http://globalwahrman.blogspot.com/2012/09/mysterious-boom-part-4-wisconsin-n.html]

Part 3: What Makes a loud noise that sounds like "BOOM" ?

Suppose you get up one day, stretch, maybe drink some coffee and then suddenly hear a loud noise, like a boom, or a crash. Boom! Maybe the room shakes a little bit. You look at the clock, and let us say it is 8:15 in the morning. And you think nothing of it.

But then, just suppose, that the next day you get up, get some coffee, and hear another loud noise, boom ! And you look at the clock, and its 8:10 AM. And you think nothing of it. Now lets say that happens five days in a row, and then never happens again. And when you mention what you heard to a co-worker, they say, yes, I heard that too, and nobody knows what they were. You check around and that turns out to be correct, everyone in your town who was awake at the time, and even a few who were not, heard these booms and felt them. But no one knows what caused it.

It turns out there are a number of things that can cause a loud boom, and maybe shake things up a bit. Here is a short list of the most probable for your consideration: an explosion such as a gas main exploding, an explosion such as a construction crew setting off some dynamite for building demolition or excavation, a collision such as a truck running into a building or an airplane running into the ground, a sonic boom such as made by an airplane, or a sonic boom and possibly also an explosion / collision if a meteor of some substance were to enter the atmosphere somewhere near where you are. Another possibility might be an earthquake. Although many quakes do not make much noise on their own, often there are noises associated with them, and they could easily make a loud boom or crashing sound. This is not a complete list, but it is a reasonable point of departure for our discussion.

But the first thing to know, is that loud noises do not "just happen", they have a cause. And the second thing to know is that other people heard it, so its not your imagination, or something just local that *sounded* loud to you, but was really just near your ear. And the third thing to know is that whatever it was, happened several days in a row at about the same time, so that means it was not an accidental explosion, or an earthquake, or a meteor or a car crash because those do not happen more than once as if on a schedule. And the fourth thing to know is that no one knows what caused them, and that means that the local military base is denying they are involved, and that if these are construction-related explosions, then they are not following the rules for setting off explosions which requires them to get a permit. But all legitimate construction or mining companies do follow the rules in this country (it is a well-enforced regulation everywhere that I am aware of), so it wasn't that.

In fact, there are only a few things that can cause such a loud boom on a schedule and be unknown. The first is that someone is flying something that is really fast and not talking about it. And the second is that someone is setting off explosions in the ground or the air and not talking about it. Both types of things happen, and while they are usually government related, they do not always have to be. But unless you live near the border of Mexico and the drug cartels are building a tunnel and do not mind that everyone within 20 miles can hear them do it, which is unlikely, then it was not that, and that leaves us only two causes.

And those two causes are generally that the government is flying something really fast that it doesn't want to talk about and the other is that the government is digging something and it doesn't want to talk about it. Both things happen as it turns out.

Continued in part 4