Bizarre: Mystery Boom in San Diego
July 3, 2021
SAN DIEGO一 On June 8 San Diego social media was buzzing about a mysterious boom that caused an earthquake-like shaking throughout the county.
According to CBS 8, the U.S. Geological Survey reported that there was no earthquake activity in the area when the mystery event hit around 8:20 p.m., in fact, the last report of shaking was clocked in at 5:37 a.m. the same day in southeast Riverside.
This is the third such event reported in San Diego with previous events on February 17 and March 10, same M.O. a loud sound associated with earthquake-like shaking.
In February, the USGS said that sonic booms, which are particularly common in Southern California with one of the largest naval bases in the country nestled in San Diego and a marine base just up the freeway, are loud noises associated with shock waves and could be the culprit of the mystery.
Twitter was ablaze with theories about the mystery, guessing everything from the return of Top Gun favorite Maverick, to aliens crossing into our atmosphere for a closer look. One Twitter fan, @GYM_SHARK, attributed it to Padres’ third baseman Manny Machado’s batting practice.
Fantasy is much more interesting than reality, four days later MCAS Miramar tweeted a release claiming a possible responsibility for the event.
“While MCAS Miramar cannot account for every sound event that occurs within the area, in this case, the cause is possibly due to aircraft training occurring in the W-291 range, approximately 30 miles southwest of San Diego over the Pacific Ocean,” said a June 12 press release from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. “Two units departed from MCAS Miramar and were conducting simulated air-to-air combat training.”
The release went on to describe the factors involved in sonic booms including temperature variations and humidity levels that can cause waves to travel farther than normal.
Twitter continued to question the origin of the big boom, with a lot of users still leaning towards aliens as the origin.
But it seems that the social media site has taken a lighter look at the mystery.
One Twitter user commented “Sounds of freedom. Boom away any time you like,” in response to the press release.
