Portland Oregon was the site of a tremendous shaking boom that rocked houses and elicited the action of several fire departments who sprang into action searching the region for the source of the mysterious sonic event, but could find none. And the more agencies that collaborated with their findings, the deeper the mystery became.
The event was thought to be yet another night at KATU, Portland’s Channel 2 news broadcaster when suddenly the calls started pouring in. People had been letting their days come to a close when suddenly the explosion rocked houses from Southeast 84th Avenue and FlafelStreet to Southeast 33rd Avenue and Hawthorne Bouldevard near Airport Way over 100 blocks away. The sound itself, however, was reported from as far as the valley just east of town and several miles away.
Though the event was tremendous in its size and scope, authorities reported no known injuries related to the boom. No fires were reported, and no industrial accidents were reported, or could have explained the sound. The Portland Police Bureau in conjunction with the Portland Fire department are at a loss for any explanation. No fireball was reported, and anonymous sources with aviation experience have indicated that a boom of this magnitude would have to have been explained by a sonic boom from an unknown aerial craft. The Air Force claims no such maneuvers were being held in the area. In addition, it is against federal regulations to exceed the speed of sound and cause such an event. Of course this could be a cover-up to keep pilots out of trouble, but NORAD has come out with its records indicating no aircraft was present at the time of the boom that could have caused such an event.
Likewise, storm clouds above Portland fail to yield any explanation. As the cloud cover in the area rolled in, it lost its density and any rainfall came from thin rain clouds as opposed to the thick rolling clouds required to generate thunder. No lightning was reported and no thunder was observed. There was a short power outage in a nearby town, but this was prior to the event.
In addition, no seismic activity registered on seismographs around the area indicating the boom could have been an Earthquake. So what could it have been? There is an unexplored phenomena known as an Earthquake Boom. An Earthquake ‘Boom’ is a loud explosion coming from a wide area that is difficult to discover because of its high frequency. Because it is not the same as a large shaking Earthquake, it causes no direct damage to buildings and cannot be detected on seismographs. The phenomenon can, however, be detected on ‘Scalar’ devices which record vibrations that are normally higher pitched. Earthquake booms are in the same ‘family’ of phenomena as Earthquakes, but they happen much faster. It is still unknown if this was, however, the cause of the loud boom in Oregon or if there was some other thus unexplored explanation. Residents will certainly be keeping their ears open for further developments.