Press
After a bang in the Mediterranean, many believe it was an earthquake, but the all-clear quickly follows. But what was the cause instead?
Campo nell’Elba – Windows burst, houses sway. A bang that caused fear and confusion from Tuscany to Corsica: On the Mediterranean coast in Italy and on the French island, a mysterious thunder was heard on Thursday (June 20, 2024).
Many people immediately thought it was an earthquake, but that wasn’t it. There are several theories about the mysterious phenomenon. Some believe the cause is in space, others in the sea or in the air. But experts don’t agree.
Thunder on the Mediterranean coast: Bangs can be heard in Tuscany, Elba and Corsica
The town of Campo nell’Elba (the oldest municipality on the island of Elba) announced on Facebook that a nearby measuring station had recorded a “seismic acoustic event” at 4:30 p.m. “that was perceived by everyone.” According to media reports, the bang was also clearly audible on the island of Corsica, about 60 kilometers away. Last year, a violent earthquake shook Italy and also Tuscany.
Eugenio Giani, the Tuscan regional president, initially spoke of an earthquake. He then corrected himself, however, as the Italian seismological observatory did not register any quakes.
Origin of Mediterranean bang probably near the island of Montecristo
The bang probably came from above. The region’s geophysical institute and the University of Florence said that measurements showed that the cause of the tremor was moving at a speed of more than 600 kilometers per second. “A meteorite entering the atmosphere seems the most likely and is consistent with the recorded data,” they said.
According to the Tuscan Geophysical Institute, it was possibly a fragment of a Asteroidswhich disintegrated in the Earth’s atmosphere and released large amounts of energy. This assumption was made by Marco Morelli, director of the Parsec Foundation. The calculations identified the source of the bang south of the island of Montecristo. Another asteroid named “Apophis” will soon come closer to Earth than many satellites.
Meteorite impact caused thunder from Tuscany to Corsica? Experts sure, but there is no evidence
The meteorite over the Mediterranean is said to have moved north from there at 1,440 kilometers per hour. After checking, the institute says this scenario “seems to be the most plausible and is consistent with the recorded data.”
However, this is still only a theory. The daily newspaper The Sera Corriere quoted an unnamed employee of the Italian civil protection agency who does not believe in an impact: “An impact would have been registered by seismographs. There were no registered observations of a fireball, and the port authority of Livorno also has “no reports” of a meteorite.
Bang in the Mediterranean not an isolated incident: It could have been an airplane
The employee continued: “The most likely hypothesis is still an airplane.” Giani, however, ruled this out: He had been assured by the Air Force that no airplane could have made a sonic boom there. According to media reports, another theory for the origin of the bang is an underwater gas eruption.
The mysterious bang is apparently not an isolated incident. According to the newspaper, it was not the first such noise: similar events were reported on Elba in 2012, 2016 and 2023. The cause is still unclear. According to the institute, Thursday’s bang was ten times louder.
An even longer temporal regularity is also suspected: “The explosions have been repeated for at least ten years,” explained Gianmario Gentini of the West Elba Civil Protection two years ago at The Tyrrhenian Sea. (cgsc with afp)
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