Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 17, 1993 TAG: 9302170004
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BECKLEY, W.VA. LENGTH: Medium
W.VA. RUMBLE REMAINS MYSTERY FOR 6 COUNTIES
Authorities still were unsure Tuesday what made the earth tremble and sky rumble in six West Virginia counties a day earlier."We sure didn't see anything," said Matthew Sibol, a researcher at the Virginia Tech Seismological Observatory in Blacksburg, Va. "Even something that was felt over six counties.
"If it was a blast or something like that, we should have seen it. It almost had to be in the atmosphere," he said.
The brief rumble shortly after 6:30 p.m. Monday did not trigger monitors at the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo., said spokesman John Minsch. The center tracks earthquakes worldwide.
"There's nothing in our records that would indicate any earthquake in that area," he said.
Sibol and Minsch said a sonic boom, created by military aircraft flying faster than the speed of sound, could be to blame.
Maybe, maybe not, said David Townsend, office manager at the Federal Aviation Administration office in Charleston.
"That's total speculation," he said. "I have no information on anything. Unless it was a special event, they wouldn't even notify us."
No faster-than-usual aircraft were spotted by the FAA tower at the Lewisburg-Greenbrier County Airport, said controller John Dowdy.
"I wasn't even aware that anything happened," Dowdy said. "We don't know of anything."
Officials at the state's Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training, said the agency had no reports of any mine accidents that might account for the noise.
And Dick Calcaterra of the National Weather Service office in Beckley said weather probably was not the cause: "All we do know is that something definitely happened," he said.
The rumble lit up sheriff's department switchboards and had people talking in Raleigh, Fayette, Summers, Greenbrier, Boone and Wyoming counties.
Authorities in neighboring Virginia counties said they had no similar reports.
Beverley Tucker was watching television in her Beckley home when she heard the noise.
"We thought it was a coal truck . . . but it just really shook the house and we weren't sure," she said. "I was shopping last night and a lot of the people were asking me if I had felt it, too."