Earthquake, Thunder Or Sonic Boom: The Loud Sound Heard By People In Bengaluru

At roughly around 1:20 PM, citizens of South-East part of Bengaluru were surprised and shaken with a sudden loud noise -- similar to a lightning strike but with far deadlier intensity.

Some people thought it was the earthquake, some felt it was lightning while some also thought it was a fighter jet going supersonic, thus releasing a sonic boom. This caused quite a kerfuffle on Twitter.

Twitter

Definitely not an earthquake

Out of all these assumptions, Earthquake has been ruled out, according to the official statement by Karnataka State¡¯s Natural Disaster Management Centre, which stated, ¡°The activity reported in Bengaluru is not due to an earthquake. The seismometers did not capture any ground vibration as generally happens during a mild tremor. The activity is purely a loud unknown noise.¡±

Was it a sonic boom?

Ruling out earthquake, the next option is that of a jet fighter going supersonic over the city. This is also the most logical one, considering Bengaluru is not only home to one of the largest IAF (Indian Air Force) bases in the country, but HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) has its own R&D Facility. Authorities haven¡¯t really revealed anything officially yet,

Reuters

In case you didn¡¯t know, a sonic boom occurs when an aircraft boosts to fly faster than the speed of sound. The aircraft, in lay man¡¯s terms, tears through the atmosphere, resulting in the loud thunderous sound.

When an aircraft travels through air, it generates a series of pressure waves at the front and back of the aircraft. These waves pass at the speed of sound and, as the speed of the object rises, the waves are forced together, or compressed, because they cannot get out of each other's path quickly.

Supersonic jets like the Concorde or the SR71 Blackbird were known to go supersonic with speeds of up to 2,179 kilometres per hour and 3,529 kilometres per hour respectively. Indian fleet too had a supersonic jet dubbed Mirage 2000. To put things into perspective, a regular aircraft maxes out at a speed of around 1000 kilometres per hour.

However, this too seems highly unlikely, as a former IAF test pilot in a conversation with TOI states, ¡°During air trials, the profile will include testing for supersonic speed. However, there are clear parameters of how to do it, and if it is indeed from a plane, it would be by mistake.¡±

Reuters

It could be a cyclonic air collision

Another theory from a source at KSNDMC has told TOI that this could likely have caused due to a heavy vacuum formation due to the sudden entry of cyclonic wind. Basically, hot and cold air when collides (common in cyclone-like situations), create a vacuum which eventually sounds like a loud thunderous clap. Experts term it as an atmospheric phenomenon.

You can check out what it sounded like below:

So what was it? Aliens? Or something else? Let us know in the comments section below.