The booms are back in Clintonville

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CLINTONVILLE -- The booms are back in Clintonville.

Police received about 65 calls late last night from residents who heard loud, rumbling-type noises. City Administrator Lisa Kuss has again called the U.S. Geological Survey to see if there’s an explanation. Things had been relatively quiet since early last Thursday, after many of Clintonville’s 4,600 residents went through four nights of noises-and-shaking. Later on Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey said a small earthquake with a one-point-five magnitude had hit Clintonville. And geologists said smaller quakes may have also struck, even though they couldn’t be measured.

Scientists say the earthquakes can produce seismic energy that can move through underground rock at thousands-of-miles an hour, causing the sonic booms people in Clintonville have been hearing.

The U.S. Geological Survey says it might put a seismometer in Clintonville, to get a better read on what’s going on there. Federal geo-physicist John Bellini said he checked seismometers in the area of Clintonville – and he could not detect anything late last night. That was after an earthquake of a one-point-five magnitude was recorded eight days ago. Bellini says it’s likely that the city is getting a small swarm of earthquakes, similar to what happens across the U.S. several times each year.

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