Thomas Knur has sent in his eyewitness account of the mystery boom heard in Playa Blanca last week.
“We were standing right under the source of the noise in Montaña Roja. It was right over our heads, and we saw it for ourselves. It wasn’t an earthquake, plane, or sonic boom.
The origin was a small, violent, black storm cloud in which there were two short, consecutive flashes, but not to the ground but in a circle (like a sphere). As the diameter of these flashes was very small, the pressure wave intensified not in one thunder, but two short explosive noises.
It was a truly breath-taking natural spectacle that I had never seen before. So, to be clear – no sonic boom, no earthquake, but a natural phenomenon.”
Ball lightning
Ball lightning is a rare phenomenon described on Wikipedia as a “luminescent, spherical object that varies from pea-sized to several metres in diameter.” They can appear as red, orange, yellow, white or even blue in colour, usually lasting for a few moments only to vanish silently or with an explosive boom.
Experts puzzled
The Co-ordination Centre for Emergencies and Security (CECOES) has stated that, after consulting with various agencies, it has “ruled out the possibility that the noise was caused by seismic activity, an explosion or a jet plane”. Ramón López, a local astronomer who recorded the bang, has also said that no meteorite was registered at that time.
CECOES suggest that the bang “could be” related to the core of a storm that was near the islands at that time.
No official explanation has been given yet but Knur’s eyewitness report tallies with the theory given by the CECOES at the weekend.
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