Clintonville, WI is BOOMING!

[American Patriot]

Wis. hires seismologists to seek source of mysterious booms

By Jessie Van Berkel, The (Appleton, Wis.) Post-Crescent

Updated 10m ago

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CLINTONVILLE, Wis. – After four days of unexplained loud booms that have roused area residents from their beds with no answers in sight, local officials have hired an engineering firm to try to locate the source of the strange sounds.

• By Ron Page, AP
  A resident asks questions at a public meeting with city officials in Clintonville, Wis., on Wednesday. Families long for quiet after mysterious booms over the past few nights roused them from their beds.

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By Ron Page, AP
A resident asks questions at a public meeting with city officials in Clintonville, Wis., on Wednesday. Families long for quiet after mysterious booms over the past few nights roused them from their beds.






The mysterious booms have captured the attention of national media, including reporters from CNN, NBC and The New York Times who swarmed a public hearing Wednesday when city administrator Lisa Kuss announced the city will spend $7,000 to hire Waukesha, Wis.-based engineering firm Ruekert & Mielke, which will place four seismometers around the city.
If the firm finds the epicenter, the next step will be to pinpoint the depth and what is causing it. The cause is likely only a couple hundred feet under the earth's surface, Kuss said.
"It's possible we'll never have a definitive answer," Kuss told about 400 residents at the Clintonville High School auditorium.
The sounds began Sunday and reports to police since then have come in from across the city of 4,600 residents.
Kuss displayed maps showing where calls have come in from residents reporting vibrations and booms -- which they describe as sounding like thunder, underground fireworks or someone slamming a heavy door.
The city set up audio and video recorders overnight Tuesday but didn't capture anything. There was at least one loud boom at 5 a.m. As of 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, no other noises were reported.
Some residents say their house have been particularly hard-hit.
For Holly Beringer, the vibrations have shaken her home, rattling pictures and dishes. She was in the crowd Wednesday with several of her neighbors, who said they didn't have questions for city officials but were curious to hear if they had any answers.
While city officials haven't pinpointed what is happening, they've ruled out many theories, Kuss said, including issues with the sanitary and storm water systems, changes in methane or propane gas levels, blasting from mines, military activity, criminal activity or construction.
They have consulted several geologists, including researchers at the universities in Milwaukee and Madison without any conclusions, Kuss said. She has received emails from across the nation and world, with people offering suggestions and reporting similar occurrences elsewhere.
A similar incident was reported in Marion, near Clintonville, about two decades ago and in Georgia more recently.
"But it didn't last three days and three nights," Kuss said.
Several scared residents asked whether -- and how -- they should prepare for a serious emergency.
The city can't predict if something bigger will happen, but Kuss told people there is no reason to consider evacuating the city and that there are fewer reported booms and vibrations each day.
Some residents joked they should capitalize on the odd phenomenon by selling free shakes with hamburgers and making T-shirts claiming "things are booming in Clintonville."

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[American Patriot]

Clintonville, WI Booms Rattle City, Remain Unexplained

CARRIE ANTLFINGER 03/20/12 06:07 PM ET
MILWAUKEE — A series of mysterious underground booms have been rattling a small eastern Wisconsin city for at least two nights, baffling residents and local officials who were left stumped Tuesday after ruling out numerous theories, from earthquakes to water pressure problems.
The noises – described as rumbles of thunder, sonic booms or fireworks – were being reported in northeast Clintonville, about 140 miles northwest of Milwaukee, on Sunday night but quieted down at daybreak. The sounds started back up Monday night across a wider area and continued until about 5 a.m. Tuesday, said City Administrator Lisa Kuss.
"There's no warning, it's just `bam,'" Kuss said. "I would describe it as startling, an adrenalin rush. ... Your heart is instantaneously kind of racing because you are not expecting it."
Local resident Al Miller said he's been hearing rumblings for a couple weeks but chalked it up to thunder or didn't think much of it. But an especially loud boom woke him around 3 a.m. Monday.
"My house shook and it was just like a shock," the 71-year-old said. "I got out of bed and was like `Wow.' I thought one of my trees fell onto the house."
When he went outside and saw the trees still standing, he also noticed his neighbors' lights popping on because they'd heard it, too.
Harold Tobin, a University of Wisconsin-Madison seismologist, said there are similar reports of booms in different parts of the U.S. and world from time to time. Sometimes they're explained, sometimes they're not, he said.
"I'm as intrigued and as puzzled as other people are," he said Tuesday.
A seismic station near Clintonville has recorded unusual ground shaking since Sunday night. Tobin said such activity can be caused by quarrying, mining and heavy truck traffic, but since the city ruled out those sources – there are no mines or major construction in the area – the university and the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey will likely take a closer look at the station's data.

Kuss speculated that something within Clintonville may be causing the noises, since no one from outside the city of 4,500 residents has reported hearing them. No one has been hurt, and no damage has been found.
Authorities trying to track down the source found no gas in the sewers or problems with the city water pressure or wells, and nothing was found at an area landfill that might explain the rumbling, Kuss said. Engineers also checked a nearby dam and ruled it out, and there are no nearby industrial businesses or military operations making the noise, she said.
There also have been no recorded earthquakes in the area.
"It's clearly not obvious to anyone involved what is going on," Kuss said, adding that city officials were encouraging any experts who may have a theory to contact them.
Kuss said local officials were hoping to get audio or video if the booms came back Tuesday night. A meeting is scheduled Wednesday night at the high school in Clintonville so residents could ask questions.
Some residents were just as frustrated as city leaders, and a bit sleep-deprived after being woken up for two straight nights.
"When it first started happening it was kind of scary," said 21-year-old Jordan Pfeiler. "Then it was cool in a way. Now it's just annoying. I want it to go away."

[American Patriot]

this discussion.... lol

http://www.godlikeproductions.com/fo...age1814839/pg1

[American Patriot]

http://www.terravivos.com/

[Malsua]

It would be great to have one of these shelters. The chances of using it in an actually emergency and not being burned out by locals trying to get in is statistically indistinguishable from zero.

[American Patriot]

I guess there is a theory that they are blasting or something. Not sure.

No one knows what is causing the sounds. The authorities haven't identified a cause, and no one has come forward to state their work is causing it. There's geological theories and such as well.

No one really knows yet.

[Malsua]

Everyone would know if they are blasting.

[American Patriot]

Yeah, that's my point.

I haven't heard the sounds of cannons in some time.

I live about 12 miles north of Fort Carson and over the 22 years I've lived here I've heard at various times the sounds of rounds going downrange usually in late evenings when it was relatively quiet.

I had not heard the sounds in three years probably and was sitting in my front room messing with the lap top a couple weeks back and suddenly something seemed "out of place". There was a DEEP booming sound that was nearly out of hearing range, but was certainly shaking my windows and walls.

Took me about two minutes to verify it, but it was certainly the sounds of Howitzers going off 12-15 miles south of me. I can't see them, but I damned sure can hear them from the house.

[American Patriot]

USGS confirms micro-quake in Wisconsin city plagued by mysterious booming sounds


Published March 22, 2012
| Associated Press

• 
  AP
  March 21, 2012: People turn out to get their questions answered at a meeting with city officials about the mysterious booming and rumbling in Clintonville, Wis.

CLINTONVILLE, Wis. – Federal geologists say a minor earthquake occurred this week near the Wisconsin city where researchers have been investigating a series of unexplained booming sounds.
The U.S. Geological Survey said Thursday the 1.5 magnitude earthquake struck Tuesday just after midnight in the eastern Wisconsin city of Clintonville.
Geophysicist Paul Caruso says loud booming noises have been known to accompany earthquakes. He says it's possible the mysterious sounds are linked to the quake.
City officials have been seeking answers related to the late-night booms, which started Sunday night and have as yet defied explanation.
Click here fore more on this story from Fox11online.com.



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/03/22...#ixzz1pwg2CEOt

[American Patriot]

When the Ground Goes Bump in the Night

Mike Roemer for The New York Times
About 400 people turned out Wednesday for a meeting at a high school auditorium in Clintonville, Wis., to discuss mysterious night noises.

By STEVEN YACCINO

Published: March 23, 2012

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CLINTONVILLE, Wis. — It was a quiet night last Sunday when the sounds began, and some residents have barely slept since.


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Mike Roemer for The New York Times

About 400 people turned out Wednesday for a meeting at a high school auditorium in Clintonville, Wis., to discuss mysterious night noises.

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Mike Roemer for The New York Times

Clintonville’s administrator, Lisa Kuss, spoke to reporters after the community meeting. At top, one church’s view of the events.


The New York Times




Police here have received hundreds of calls this week from citizens awakened by noises that they said seem to be coming from under the earth. At times, they said, it was like someone banging on the pipes in the basement, while at other times it was so loud that windows rattled and the ground jolted.
City officials in this small town about an hour west of Green Bay believe there is no physical threat to residents and note that no major damage has occurred to property. But night after night of the same quakelike eruptions has inspired a local obsession — driven by fear and fascination — to pinpoint the cause.
But almost a week since it started, there is still no complete explanation for why Clintonville, population about 4,600, is booming.
“People are obviously frustrated and would like to have some answers,” said Lisa Kuss, the city administrator.
The first tremors started around 9:30 p.m. Sunday. City officials, who now believe the incidents to be a geological anomaly, said they first got wind of the problem around four hours later, after a louder series of “events” woke at least 150 people in the early morning. “You got these big concussion booms like you’re in the middle of fireworks,” said Robert Ptacek, 49, who first thought the sound was someone trying to break into his house. “It was one time over there and the next time it was this way. It was coming from all over. Some of them more rapid, some of them five or six minutes apart, and then it would die.”
Verda Schultz, 47, thought someone was slamming car doors outside her house, but when she got up to yell at the person, she noticed that all the people in her neighborhood were already gathering on the street in their pajamas.
“There’s something radically wrong with this earth,” she said, noting that her horses and dog have been acting oddly for a few days.
Experts and local officials think they know what it is not.
That first night, they checked a nearby electrical substation, but found no problems. Utility employees walked up and down neighborhood streets testing gas levels in the sewers, seeing nothing unusual. The city has since looked for changes in the water pressure, tested methane levels at the local landfill, contacted the military about any exercises in the area and investigated nearby construction, industrial and mining activities. Zilch.
Another possible explanation emerged Thursday, when officials said that seismic monitors had noted a microearthquake — a magnitude of 1.5, and very rare for the region — just after midnight on Tuesday that may have been responsible for some of the sounds.
The booms appeared to be localized in one small section on the north end of town, just east of Main Street. Some neighbors only blocks away from where people reported the disturbance said they heard and felt nothing.
“Microearthquakes in general happen all the time, all over the world, but we’ve never had one specifically detected in Wisconsin, especially a whole series of them like what we have been seeing going on Clintonville,” said Harold J. Tobin, a professor of geoscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has been helping to diagnose the mysterious pounding.
“But people haven’t necessarily looked very hard for them,” he added. “It’s only because of the publicity that seismologists went looking for such a small needle in a haystack.”
Unexplained earthly noises, though odd, are not entirely, well, unheard of. Dr. Tobin has been flooded with e-mails from across the country. But rarely does such thumping reoccur on multiple nights.
Residents of Windsor, Ontario, however, have been bothered on and off for more than a year by a low hum — like the bass from a car stereo. Al Maghnieh, a city councilor, said he helped start an investigation that established that the noise was most likely caused by a nearby steel mill.
While there is a forging plant not far from Clintonville, city officials said that the work being done there does not seem to correspond with the times these noises occur.
And while the intensity of events appears to be decreasing in Clintonville — only a handful of people reported hearing it Wednesday night — the apprehension of some residents seems only to keep growing.
“I think somebody is drilling holes and planting dynamite,” said Gary Nielson, 60. Other hypotheses include meth labs, sinkholes, underground rivers and even a corporate conspiracy to drive home prices down.
On Wednesday night, to help ease anxiety, the city held a public meeting in its high school auditorium, where about 400 residents turned out.
Standing at the dais, Ms. Kuss, the city administrator, said her best guess was that the unusually warm winter and early spring weather might have something to do with the phenomenon.
“It is possible,” she said, “that we will never have a definitive answer.”