Spooky navigation lights in South Carolina can be earthquake trees

A ghost story of South Carolina can have a very terrestrial explanation.

Starting in the 1950s, people in Summerville, SC, the areas began to report views of the strange light balls floating down a remote road near some of the former railroads. Local Lore says Illuminations Eerie, known as Summerville Light, are the splendor of a lantern performed by a lost ghost.

But maybe earthquakes are the source of this ghost light, and some other ghost legends also, geologist Susan Hough proposes January 22 in Seismological research letters. Radon, methane, or other gases rising from the ground during earthquakes could have been heated by static electricity or spark from the relocation of rocks or passing trains, causing vapor in the Luminesce, suggests Hough, from the geological survey of the United States in Pasadena, Calif.

Located away from any tectonic plate border, Summerville may seem an impossible earthquake place. But in 1886, a size 7 tempor destroyed Charleston’s nearby city, killing 60 people. This event and hundreds of consequences over the next decades revealed the significant seismic risk of the area.

The region is also rich in ghost fairy tales, the most famous of which can be the legend of Summerville light. History generally goes one night, the wife of a railway worker was waiting for him from some songs when he learned that he was decapitated in an accident. From then on, and even after her death, the woman returns to the rails every night, holding a lantern as she searches for her husband’s head.

Curious if light can be explained by a physical mechanism, revised books, magazines and online resources for registered views of mysterious orbs and other supernatural claims from the area. She also studied the earthquake history of the area, focusing from 1890 to 1960 – the period leading to the start of glances.

Only a few earthquakes were documented during that time period, she found. Had a size of 3.9 in 1907, and then in 1959 – about when views began – a size 4.4, followed shortly thereafter by a couple of smaller earthquakes in 1960. These earthquakes would most likely be associated with earthquakes Extra, even smaller who went to the ignorant, says Hough. Despite their small size, she says, it is possible that such tempors could have generated the earthquake light without anyone who suspected an earthquake.

Other instances of supernatural activity reported in the area, such as violently shaking cars, objects and doors that move spontaneously, and the steps heard in the upper rooms can also be explained by unclear earthquakes. Many of the reports appear to adapt to the known oscillation that they occur in an II on the degree of modified Mercalli intensity, which scientists use to evaluate earthquakes based on affected damage, says Hough. Understanding is generally considered to be in Mercalli intensity II if it is weak and “feels only by a few people at rest, especially on the upper floors of the building”.

Hough’s proposal is reasonable, says earthquake scientist Yuji Enomoto of Shinshu University in Matsumoto, Japan, but more geological data are needed to clarify which natural mechanism may be after the light of Summerville. “Specifically, data on the presence of an anaerobic environment containing organic matter capable of generating methane, and the existence of the granitic bed containing radium, which can produce radon” would be more useful, says Enomoto.

For Hugh, one of the most intriguing implications of the work is the possibility that similar ghost stories elsewhere can be accompanied by delicate seismic activities. “There are a bunch of ghosts that wander the rails in different places in the United States … that hold lanterns that require separate heads,” says Hough. “Maybe they are shining active shallow mistakes.”