Something exploded over and under Lake Huron near the US/Canadian border. Nobody knows what it was.

August 14, 2008 12:47 PM

Something exploded over and under Lake Huron near the US/Canadian border on July 31, 2008. Nobody knows what it was. Initial published reports identified the cause as a meteor shower (without attribution). A week later more details emerged and meteors were ruled out. So what was it?

The local nuclear plant? The giant underwater salt mine? A series of earthquakes? Military fighter jets? All have been counted out. Pure speculation, but could this strange event be related?

posted by maxpower (52 comments total)

Related?
posted by Mister_A at 12:53 PM on August 14, 2008

Well, we are under meteor attack right now.
posted by Artw at 12:55 PM on August 14, 2008

curious kaboom confounds kincaidine canadians.
posted by yeoz at 12:56 PM on August 14, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

I'm pretty sure it was your mom.

Hahahaha. Hahaha.
posted by kbanas at 12:59 PM on August 14, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I bet it was Cthulu.
posted by paddbear at 1:01 PM on August 14, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Kimberlite explosion.
posted by billysumday at 1:04 PM on August 14, 2008

It was my heart.
posted by CautionToTheWind at 1:04 PM on August 14, 2008

Large Hadron Collider. From the future. Cause science is crazy.
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 1:10 PM on August 14, 2008 [11 favorites has favorites]

C'mon Max, we know you were just rehearsing the grand entrance for your second anniversary party. Nuclear submarine? Sharks with rocket propulsion packs? The Hive Mind wants to know!
posted by junkbox at 1:11 PM on August 14, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I was hoping to make it through my thirties before the Tripods arrived.
posted by jimmythefish at 1:12 PM on August 14, 2008 [6 favorites has favorites]

Not the first time a meteor has hit Canada.
posted by MrMoonPie at 1:14 PM on August 14, 2008

This is the kind of panic laden fear, uncertainty and doubt that results when investigative journalism is so undervalued that The Weekly World News is allowed to go under.
posted by stavrogin at 1:17 PM on August 14, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Ripples from the Tunguska death ray.
posted by drezdn at 1:17 PM on August 14, 2008

Well, for what it's worth I looked at composite reflectivity weather radar data for that area from 10:45 pm to 1 am that night and did not see anything. Sometimes the radars will pick up ionization trails or debris, but either it was undetectable, appeared in between samples (several minutes elapse between scans), or was nonexistent.

Bradley said they called Pierson Airport Air Traffic Control to confirm if a sonic boom had been caused by a fighter jet over Lake Huron.

Aside from talking to some naval headquarters this seems to be the only credible contact anyone's had with ATC. I suspect that there were planes on Lake Huron, and the sheriff just looked up Toronto Pearson and ended up talking with the tower. If so, (A) the tower controller probably was busy, and did not know where Kincardine was, and thought it was someone local and didn't see military activity around the city and said so, and (B) the tower doesn't look at stuff outside of 15-20 miles. Now if the officer called Toronto Area Control Centre, those guys do look at Lake Huron. But I don't see any evidence they were the ones he was talking to. We really need more info -- what I see in the news article is incomplete.
posted by crapmatic at 1:22 PM on August 14, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Si Ego Certiorem Faciam... Mihi Tu Delendus Eris
posted by drezdn at 1:26 PM on August 14, 2008

Tom Cruise's career?
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:30 PM on August 14, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Last time I try to light my farts after a beer, cheese and bratwurst diet...
posted by C17H19NO3 at 1:34 PM on August 14, 2008

ULLA!
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 1:38 PM on August 14, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Damn, that'll learn me to park my spaceship over/under a lake and leave a half-trained orangutan in charge of the reactor. In my own defense, he had a hat. I thought he looked like he knew what he was doing.
posted by Flipping_Hades_Terwilliger at 1:42 PM on August 14, 2008

you mean this guy?
posted by caddis at 1:48 PM on August 14, 2008

South Bruce OPP Staff Sergeant Paul Bradley said London Emergency Dispatch was inundated with dozens of calls at about 11 p.m., with a variety of descriptions from residents ranging from “tremors”, earthquakes” to “numerous explosions”.

Bradley went to say "Look, here! I'll show you. At 11:04pm, we had a call from one Michael Hunt claiming he felt 'a great tremor and vibration low down.' And then at 11:05 we got another call, this time from a Haibeen Farteen who told us that he definitely felt a rumble under his seat."
posted by shmegegge at 1:54 PM on August 14, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

hmm.. the story, or lack there of, is eerily similar to this gem I read in Year's Best Sci-Fi awhile back. The Canadian Who Came Almost All the Way Home From the Stars. I hope this one turns out the same way.
posted by doctoryes at 2:03 PM on August 14, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

There's a series of strange explosions. Nobody knows what's causing them, but they're upsetting the buffalo.
posted by The Tensor at 2:19 PM on August 14, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

In my own defense, he had a hat.

Yeah, but what kind of hat? Sensible yellow hard hat, or Carmen Miranda fruit-salad hat?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 2:29 PM on August 14, 2008

I swear, every time you think that you can trust that scamp Tom Paris with a shuttle...
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:29 PM on August 14, 2008

{ favorited for humor. }
posted by uni verse at 2:50 PM on August 14, 2008

This phenomenon can be fully explained in a parsimonious way: It is the sound of shit hitting the fan.
posted by isopraxis at 2:50 PM on August 14, 2008

At 11:04pm, we had a call from one Michael Hunt

It was a prank call: "Have you seen Mike Hunt?"
posted by TreeHugger at 2:59 PM on August 14, 2008

About a quarter-mile inland from the cattail-covered shore of Lake Huron, squared in by trees and reachable only by rutted gravel road, lies one of the latest beachheads in the escalating battle between environmentalists and energy hunters.

It is a three-acre patch of dusty ground with a well in the middle, its pipes arcing into the earth to bring up natural gas and oil from the rock deep under the lake. This well and six others like it in Michigan are the only places in this country where there is drilling for oil and gas under the Great Lakes, the world's largest source of fresh water.

But now, with the Bush administration calling for increased domestic drilling everywhere, even sandy lakeshore wells like this one in Pinconning are suddenly in the spotlight, scrambling political allegiances in the process.
...
Michigan's Republican governor, John Engler, announced plans earlier this year to lift a 1997 state moratorium on new drilling, which he imposed himself. The state's energy experts estimate that the move could bring up to 30 new wells on the shores of Lakes Michigan and Huron.

Environmentalists oppose the governor, saying the drilling could threaten the lakes and the wildlife areas on their shores. [From a 2001 article.]

Looking at seismic echoes from explosions is an essential part of the oil exploration process.

Someone is setting off these explosions in the salt mine under the lake and possibly aboveground as well to find the oil and plan the drilling.

The salt mine must know about this, but they are denying it to avoid tipping off the environmental and other opposition on both sides of the border.

This phenomenon can be fully explained in a parsimonious way: It is the sound of shit hitting the fan.

Yes, exactly.
posted by jamjam at 3:08 PM on August 14, 2008 [5 favorites has favorites]

Maybe the miners could start jeté-ing, and stop je-terrorizing the buffalo.
posted by uni verse at 3:21 PM on August 14, 2008

This was staged pre-emptively to distract the Canadian people from their country's performance in the Olympics (difficulty: list will make absolutely no sense to the 99.5% of people who aren't Canadian).
posted by lukemeister at 4:24 PM on August 14, 2008

Guys, wisecracks don't help people find answers.
posted by staggernation at 5:09 PM on August 14, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Right now, as we all know, the Bush Administration is conducting a full scale, going out of business, Rape Of The Planet Sale. If you can spell oil, you can drill for it anywhere, anytime.

The last time I heard of a salt mine under a lake, the oil rigs punctured the ceiling, and the "lake", went into the salt mine, and now the whole area is a salt lake. I wonder what that kind of action would do to the headwaters of the Mississippi? Imagine the USA, split by a thousand mile long saline estuary, where the Mississippi River used to be?

There are also the boiling Methane lakes in what used to be the tundra, up North. I am so excited, but the real action has to be the accidental unleashing of underwater weaponry, by accident or intention from a submarine in the Lake. Maybe subs can't get into the lake. I will tell you this, the Sh*t will hit the fan if they drill over the top of salt domes.
posted by Oyéah at 5:13 PM on August 14, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

More realistically perhaps, is the Thunder Bay shipwreck area, where many ships are on the bottom, and have been there for a long time. Perhaps at times, these fuel ignites, or salvageers seeking bounty, might set off charges to open the hull of a particular vessel. That would be some charge, however.

I imagine there is a reason they call it Thunder Bay, as well.
posted by Oyéah at 5:18 PM on August 14, 2008

They call it Thunder Bay because the referendum was split between Lakehead and The Lakehead.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:32 PM on August 14, 2008

StaggerNation: "Guys, wisecracks don't help people find answers."

You're looking for answers. The rest of us are looking for punchlines.

*rimshot*

Thank you! I'll be here all week! Tip your waitresses! Try the veal! GOOD NIGHT!
posted by ZachsMind at 5:40 PM on August 14, 2008

I prefer to tip cows.
posted by lukemeister at 5:51 PM on August 14, 2008

It couldn't have been serious, otherwise Bush would have used it to (a) bomb Iran, (b) further erode our liberties, or (c) both.
posted by bigcynic at 6:06 PM on August 14, 2008

It was me testfiring my giant poutine catapult.
posted by storybored at 6:23 PM on August 14, 2008

Poutinapult?
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 6:31 PM on August 14, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

This thread is gravy from here on.
posted by lukemeister at 6:46 PM on August 14, 2008

It was a secret, hush-hush etc, test. But I can tell you that it will be deployed in Kurdistan.
posted by storybored at 6:57 PM on August 14, 2008

weird story -
our family cottage is at Point Clark but I hadn't heard of this so thanks for the post

My money was on aircraft no one was admitting to,
but the UWO guys seem to be ruling out everything except something akin to surface blasting at a mine

The salt mine is the only large operation like that I can think of out there,
and the only report from them is from a worker who "has never felt any tremor from blasting at the salt mine that stretches under the lake"?

By the way, that mine looks pretty wild when viewed from further down the coast - such a massive industrial behemoth stretching far out into the water amidst what is otherwise a relatively untouched coastline
(pro tip: you can free tickets to learn about the history of the mine at the local museum if you take the tour of the Goderich jail)
posted by sloe at 7:36 PM on August 14, 2008

Waterspout?
posted by sluglicker at 7:53 PM on August 14, 2008

[...] here many ships are on the bottom, and have been there for a long time. Perhaps at times, these fuel ignites [...]

Fuels — with some exceptions used very rarely on submarines and torpedoes (hydrazine, hydrogen peroxide) — require oxygen to burn. There is not enough free oxygen underwater for them to ignite, and I doubt you'd have anywhere near the amount of trapped air in an old wreck to do anything besides make some bubbles.

Explosives, however, don't require outside oxygen and might detonate. I think you'd definitely be looking for a the wreck of a military vessel for this to be a possibility.

An intentional explosion set off for purposes of oil exploration sounds most likely, though, and also explains the apparent silence from those responsible.
posted by Kadin2048 at 8:25 PM on August 14, 2008

Waterspout?

they don't make "bang" noises - there were some at south haven on lake michigan last week and no bangs were reported

---

More realistically perhaps, is the Thunder Bay shipwreck area

which is in lake superior
posted by pyramid termite at 8:50 PM on August 14, 2008

Three words: Strange quark matter.
posted by QuestionableSwami at 11:18 PM on August 14, 2008

Three words: Vogon constructor fleet.

What, didn't you get the notice? It's been posted for years now, on file in the public records...
posted by caution live frogs at 11:05 AM on August 15, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

This is why we can't have nice things.
posted by notashroom at 12:21 PM on August 15, 2008

It was a streetlight.
posted by mudpuppie at 12:32 PM on August 15, 2008

This has been the greatest week ever for Canadian explosion posts.
posted by lukemeister at 1:58 PM on August 15, 2008

Canadian explosion, eh? Better lay off the poutine.
posted by yhbc at 2:07 PM on August 15, 2008