The "Blackwell Booms" : What we know about Sunday night's unexplained "explosions"

January 13, 2025

The Blackwell Police Department spent the cold Sunday night and into Monday morning investigating reports of unexplained "booms" in Blackwell which shook houses and were heard in multiple parts of town.

The BPD were not the only agency that responded to calls. Sheriff Steve Kelley with the Kay County Sheriff's Office stated that the KCSO had their fair share of calls Sunday regarding the noise.

"We responded to several loud booms in the area of North 40 Road, west of Ponca City, however we did not locate anything," said Kelley.

While no cause has been officially identified, several similar incidents have yielded some interesting theories as to what this "explosive" phenomenon could have been caused by.

SHALLOW EARTHQUAKE

The The United States Geological Survey (USGS) suggests "booms" can be caused by shallow earthquakes, stating on their website:

Small shallow earthquakes sometimes produce rumbling sounds or booms that can be heard by people who are very close to them. High-frequency vibrations from the shallow earthquake generate the booming sound; when earthquakes are deeper, those vibrations never reach the surface. Sometimes the earthquakes create booming sounds even when no vibrations are felt.

The University of Oklahoma's Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS) provides the most up to date data regarding seismic activity in the State of Oklahoma:

https://www.ou.edu/ogs/research/earthquakes/recentearthquakes

State Seismologist with OU's OGS Jake Walter responded to the Journal-Tribune's request for comment on the site's data for the Blackwell / Ponca area for Sunday January 12 reported from the nearest station off of Hubbard Road, southeast of town on the Chikaskia.

"The station closest to Blackwell is a seismometer that is coupled to the ground, detecting ground shaking. Those spikes indicate local sudden changes in ground motion," said Walter.

The first "boom" in Blackwell was reported around 7:27 p.m. The OU OGS depicted a slight disturbance around the same time at 1:00 UTC (7 p.m. CST)

The second "boom", reported just around 9 p.m. CST coincided with another seismic disturbance reported around 2:50 UTC (8:50 p.m. CST).

Monday morning, January 13, another "boom" was reported just past 8 a.m (CST) According to OU's data, activity was also picked up around that same time at 14:00 UTC.

However, Walter noted:

“While some of the spikes may be associated with local disturbances, we don’t necessarily know the cause.”

He continued:

“Sometimes we have heard of water heaters blowing up and other types of very loud booms or other noises and we can’t verify where they are coming from or what caused them. This may be the case here, as well.”

FROST QUAKE

From the United States Geological Survey (USGS):

"Reports of booms throughout the Midwest often coincide with low temperatures of -20 F or colder and are sometimes described as “ice quakes” or “frost quakes” . A frost quake is a result of shallow groundwater freezing, expanding, and then causing surrounding frozen rock and soil to crack. These events are not recorded on seismographs."

https://www.usgs.gov/programs/earthquake-hazards/earthquake-booms-seneca-guns-and-other-sounds

However, the temperatures Sunday night where nowhere near negative 20.

Fox25 News out of Oklahoma City reported that residents in south-central Oklahoma including Pauls Valley, Paoli, Wayne, Stratford and Rosedale reported the same booms which prompted Fox25 Chief Meteorologist Jack Gerfen to comment on the "frost quake" theory.

Gerfen notes that these quakes are surface-based and typically happen after a period of drought followed by intense water saturation into the soil and a temperature drop.

However, tremors were felt in the Oklahoma City area over the weekend, seemingly leading to the Frost Quake theory to be debunked by a state seismologist via Channel 6 News out of Tulsa on Tuesday, January 14.

The state seismologist said frost quakes form when groundwater freezes and causes the expansion of the ground near the surface, but the earthquakes from Friday and Saturday ran too deep underground to have been caused by the cold.

SKYQUAKE

Another q-word tossed around has been a "Skyquake", which is an anomaly in and of itself according to various sources across the internet.

A skyquake is a term used to describe a mysterious and sudden, loud booming or rumbling sound that seems to originate from the sky, often without any apparent cause.

People who experience skyquakes typically report hearing an intense, deep, thunderous noise that may last for a few seconds or up to several minutes. The sound can be similar to an explosion or distant thunder, and it often seems to come from nowhere.

Possible theories as to what causes a "Skyquake" include Moderate-sized meteors causing sonic booms as they strike the lower atmosphere, gas explosions such as the sudden release of trapped deposits, underwater caves collapsing, distant thunder, "atmospheric ducting" of distant thunder or other loud sounds from far off.- "ducting" is enhanced sound or radio waves traveling over long distances.

Or possible resonance from solar and/or earth magnetic activity inducing sounds.

MILITARY

Using the Federal Aviation Administration's military operations tracker at https://sua.faa.gov/sua/siteFrame.app no military operations were scheduled in the closest operations area Sunday night, January 12, which is Vance Air Force Base's out of Enid in their airspace over Blackwell.

However, the website lists several military operations out of Vance for Monday, January 13.

Julia Bennett 2nd Lt. United States Air Force, Deputy Public Affairs Officer with Vance Air Force Base, told the Journal-Tribune there were no operations in the area.

"I spoke with our airspace management team and Vance concluded flying operations at 6 p.m. on Sunday, January 12. Air operations resumed at 7:30 a.m. on Monday the 13 from Vance."

Interestingly, the United States Military conducted sonic boom tests over Oklahoma City in the early 1960s, but that's a fun story for another time.

ATMOSPHERIC

Meteors that can explode in the atmosphere, referred to as "bolides", can cause a "sonic boom" sometimes with no visible source, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Using data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) would prove useful in detecting and tracking these events, but NASA's Bolide Detector only contains data up to December 19, 2024.

https://neo-bolide.ndc.nasa.gov/#/

NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Prediction Erica Grow Cei responded to the Journal-Tribune's request for comment stating:

"Nothing that was happening weather-wise could have produced house-shaking booms in Oklahoma on Sunday night."

Keli Pirtle, NOAA Public Affairs Specialist confirmed Cei's comments, stating:

I checked with the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Norman, Oklahoma and they said they've had reports of these in the past, but are not sure about this particular incident

EXTRATERRESTRIAL

Not ruling anything out, Scientific Director for the Center of UFO Studies, Mark Rodeghier, responded to the Journal-Tribune stating that there was no precedent for the "boom" to be alien in nature.

"Mysterious booms are indeed just that, if sonic booms, explosives, etc. can be ruled out as the source," said Rodeghier.
"However, there has been no historical correlation between loud booms and UFO reports. In fact, some UFOs do emit sound but it is rarely loud, certainly nothing like a very distinct boom."

The Journal-Tribune has reached out to several other agencies and authorities and will have more as the story develops.