New paper fails to connect Summerville spook light to earthquakes

A new article by seismologist Susan Hough was published this week in Seismological Research Letters that attempts to connect the legend of the Summerville, South Carolina spook light to earthquake lights (EQLs) resulting from the faults around Charleston that caused the great 1886 quake. Since Hough is a seismologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, her words carry credibility. News of her findings have been appearing in the media strongly suggesting that the mystery of the Summerville light is solved by this conclusion. It is not.

Unfortunately, my read of it is that this paper shows that Hough didn’t know much about the wider scale of reports of either earth lights (spook or ghost lights) or earthquake lights (luminous phenomenon associated with seismic events). As part of the release of the paper, Hough says that the idea came to her after reading a Halloween-week USGS newsletter with links to “spooky science” studies and that it sparked an idea she hadn’t thought much about – connecting the ghost stories of Summerville to EQLs.

To make a convincing case, the Summerville story would have to be sufficiently unique to other spook light stories and temporally tied to earthquake lights to suggest this cause. Hough’s paper, Haunted Summerville: Ghostly Lights or Earthquake Lights?, fails to make that case.

The Summerville spook light

Charleston, SC has a lot of ghost stories. The Summerville light is included in common and widespread lore related to a ghost walking the railroad track with a lantern. Associated strange events near Summerville noted by Hough include car engines stopping, frost appearing on windows, audible whispers or voices, strange fingerprints found later on cars, visible apparitions, and cars that “violently shook”. The latter is considered by Hough to be evidence of small shallow, localized quakes.

The paper goes on to talk about a nearby “haunted house” and weakly ties apparition sightings to hallucinogenic gases released (as with Delphi) along faults. This is an unconvincing stretch – the two locations are not comparable. Gases aren’t causing people to hallucinate ghosts.

The earthquake history of the Charleston/Summerville area is obvious, but it is not possible to correlate seismic activity with sightings of the Summerville light because of the lack of recording of small quakes at this time and the inability to cite all reports of the light. Perhaps this can change, maybe a result of this paper – an exciting possibility.

Hough then moves to the similar story of the Maco light of North Carolina. I cannot follow the connection that can be made to seismic activity and this spook light location. Kaczmarek (2003) noted that the Maco light sightings stopped after the tracks were removed. I’m not sure if this is true but maybe the rails are more of a key to the spook light mystery than faults.

Spook lights not by de-fault

It is a mistake to generally link earth (spook) lights to fault lines. The sheer number of earth light locations worldwide have not correlated well to fault areas. It may be possible that some are, and that the mechanism remains difficult to resolve, but earth lights are their own phenomenon separate from EQLs.

Several years ago, I began a database to collect locations of earth lights. I let the work slide as it became overwhelming; I reached an incomplete list of 214 different locations of anomalous earth lights worldwide. These locations consisted of tales (usually multiple occurrences) of near-ground sightings of luminous phenomena. While some of these are dubious, faked, or one-off events, many of these locations became notable for their spook lights – Marfa, Min Min, Joplin, Brown Mountain. This list is biased toward US locations because of my sources (Kaczmarek, Gritzner and Palmer).

I pulled up the database again to cross-check the details. Though I did not confirm all of their characteristics, 129 of 214 were explicitly called “ghost lights”, “spook lights”, or were directly connected with a ghost legend. (I’m not sure about the rest because I haven’t looked into the details enough, but I would bet that many more have associated ghost tales.) Such phenomenon accrue strong local folklore aspects and are thus reinforced over time.

Out of the 129, 34 were associated directly with railroads. And, 31 were described with a distinctive “swinging lantern” movement that people connected to the action of someone walking along the tracks searching for something. (This may be a natural results of our visual capability in tracking light sources in the dark – UFOs are also said to move back and forth in response to our involuntary eye movements.)

Paul Devereux is my favorite resource on earth lights. In his Earth Lights Revelation, he explains that earth lights may be conflated with UFOs, but they appear to be internally produced by the earth in several places where they can be regularly observed. They have been reported across much of human history to the point that they obviously exist, but the mechanism is unclear or has multiple sources. Those mechanisms include electrical phenomenon (including a variant akin to ball lightning), burning gases, and metal deposits (acting like a battery).

Because of their unpredictability and association with haunted areas, earth lights exists on the edge of scientific awareness. This is similar to earthquake lights, which have different characteristics that set them apart from general earth/spook lights. EQLs appear as upward floating orbs, glows, curtains, or flashes. While it is possible that EQLs could be associated with faults, EQLs aren’t associated with railroad tracks and ghost stories which are very much a subset of anomalous light stories.

In short, it has been speculated by some researchers that earth lights may be associated with stressed rock along fault lines (3 such places appeared in my list), but they are not usually associated with earthquake events. If these earth lights appear with coincident earthquakes, that correlation would already have been made long ago. There are many more places that have earth/spook light legends that are not associated with fault lines than places that are.

Interestingly, Hough admits in the paper that earthquake lights are a recognized natural phenomenon. This is a substantive admission since the USGS has always downplayed the idea of EQLs. To me, this shows that the scientific community is now recognizing that the research into EQLs is legitimate.

The press release concludes that “maybe the friendly ghosts are illuminating fault zones in the east”. Again, that is far too much of a reach from this paltry data set.

Unsatisfactory conclusion with a glimmer of hope

The conclusion reached by Hough is baffling. She writes:

Although earthquake phenomena cannot explain every ghost story in every region, considering the lore of the Summerville Light, one is left with three plausible explanations: (1) there was no physical basis for the lore, beyond fanciful imaginations among a local population “spooked” by stories, (2) the legends are true, the ghost of a bereaved wife wandered along a stretch of an old trunk line with a lantern, searching for the head of her decapitated husband, or (3) accounts of apparently supernatural phenomena in and around Summerville can be explained by local earthquake activity starting around or before 1959, including small events that were not recognized as earthquakes.

She favors the last one resulting from ignition of water-soluble gases emitted from faults, like radon or methane, that were then ignited by a spark of static electricity or rock movement. She said that the gases trapped in water droplets might also help explain why these tales of ghost lights seem to occur on dark and misty nights. High humidity is not conductive to static sparks, so this makes little sense.

Left out of these possibilities are other obvious explanations for the stories of famous earth lights. These involve a combination of optical and atmospheric effects, local history and perceptions, social interest in the stories, legend tripping, etc. Speculatively linking the Summerville (and Maco) lights with EQLs in this paper feels misleading and overly simplistic, ignoring the influential social aspects at play with ghost legends and haunted places. And, it may be considered explaining one unknown with another.

Finally, there are two exciting bits in this paper: First, a USGS scientist admits that EQLs are worth scientific attention, and second, it favorably presents the option that EQLs may occur in the seismically stressed area of Charleston, so monitoring and collection of reports of lights should be considered. Hough cites the Enomoto paper, which I also referenced in this recent piece, that provides examples of the stronger evidence emerging in support of EQLs. I am all for more research into this area.

But as for the Summerville light being fault-related, this paper poorly supports that hypothesis. Spooky geology must include the wider, social component to be viable.

References

Devereux, Paul. (1990) Earth Lights Revelation.

Gritzner, Charles F. (2019). North Carolina Ghost Lights and Legends.

Hough, S. E. (2025). Haunted Summerville: Ghostly Lights or Earthquake Lights? Seismol. Res. Lett. XX, 1–7, doi: 10.1785/0220240442. https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/ssa/srl/article-abstract/doi/10.1785/0220240442/651455/Haunted-Summerville-Ghostly-Lights-or-Earthquake (Paywalled)

Kaczmarek, Dale D. (2003) Illuminating the Darkness: The Mystery of Spooklights.

Palmer, Sean B. (undated) Earth Lights: Spooklights and Ghost Lights. http://inamidst.com/lights/earth

#earthLights #earthquakeLights #folklore #ghostLight #HauntedSummerville #legends #seismology #spookLight #spookyScience #Summervillle #SusanHough

https://sharonahill.com/?p=9241

finding sunshine in nature despite grey skies: earth’s magic
#smallpoems #clmooc #poetry24 #earthlights #moss #mushrooms #winter #greyskies

http://sheri42.net/2024/02/09/grey-skies-to-earths-light/

Strange lights and levitating rocks at Arkansas crystal mine

Springing from the spine of Arkansas’ Ouachita mountains are several commercial crystal mines open for public collecting of sizable quartz crystals. Only one such mine claims to be an area of bizarre paranormal activity occurring in association with special “crystal energy” at the site. The claims are so extraordinary the owners think it may not be safe for people to visit unaccompanied. The activity at the site has attracted the attention of UFO investigators and a crew from the Travel Channel’s Expedition Unknown series. Stories from the Board Camp Crystal Mine are a perfect example of Spooky Geology.

This fascinating place in Mena, Arkansas is owned by Orville and Cheryl Murphy, who, by all accounts, are God-fearing, hospitable, well-spoken, humorous, and honest people who opened the mine in 2012. According to the local newspaper report, strange incidents began in February of 2017 when the Murphys noticed odd lights including glowing spheres that floated and moved as if under intelligent control. But even more extraordinarily, they have photographs and accounts that claim the rocks there move and even levitate!

Investigators from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) headed to the site. The following is from the Mena Star describing the MUFON involvement:

The Murphys report that since February of this year, there has been phenomena happening at Board Camp Crystal Mine, which was undeniably scientifically unexplained, according to [Chase] Kloetzke and her team of [MUFON] investigators. They conducted the investigation at the mine on February 22, just 4 days after the first oddity was experienced by the Murphys and their son, Josh White, who was visiting from Austin, TX. According to the Murphys, Kloetzke explained that the occurrence of the reported phenomena attracted MUFON’s interest because of the physical evidence left behind and the Murphys’ credibility as witnesses. Upon a visit, Kloetzke herself experienced some of the phenomena!

We aren’t privy to this evidence because the parties involved agreed not to disclose all the information until the Expedition Unknown special episode airs. Josh Gates, the host of the show and a well-known paranormal celebrity figure, visited the site on May 26. The MUFON team had reported their observations to the Travel Channel in March prompting the site to be featured in a four-part mini-series called Hunt for Extraterrestrials. You can view the quite dramatic trailer for the special here. (See update below.)

We can hear many of the claims about the mine from what the Murphys have shared on their Facebook page, YouTube channel, and from promotion on their website. A particularly detailed interview with the Murphys is available from the Inception Radio podcast, which is where I obtained several details below. What’s so weird about this place?

Last winter, Orville reported seeing sparks of light at the site. He calls them “orbs” – a common term for seemingly intelligent and anomalous balls of light. Cheryl didn’t see them at first. Orville then filmed the orbs. The video taken at night shows a light, but size and distance are impossible to judge. They said some friends suggested that the lights could be caused by the “crystal energy” at the location. Claims about the magical properties of quartz crystals are ubiquitous on the Internet. Single crystals are promoted by New Age practitioners as healing devices, having some as yet undiscovered “energy”. Quartz does have piezoelectric properties – a voltage potential can be generated when a stress, like squeezing, is applied to it. Orville clearly understands that quartz has triboluminescent properties. As a demonstration, visitors reported that he heats a crystal, then sprays it with water to rapidly cool it to produce a spark and also strikes the crystals to produce visible light.The Murphys appear to connect the anomalous lights they see to this “piezo energy” feature of the crystals.

One anomaly, however, was described as beyond the normal activity. The Murphys experienced a light event of “major proportions” that lasted 10 seconds. Three beams of light, like spotlights, went an estimated 300 feet in the air and flattened on top. Cheryl said she couldn’t tell if the beams were going up or coming down. They later entertained the possibility that the lights were from some craft floating in the air. What if UFOs were fueling up on crystal energy?! Some neighbors, they said, had also reported lights on adjacent properties and also say they saw some kind of craft in the sky. The Murphys allege that several events were witnessed by multiple people at the same time.

MUFON and other investigators were called in. The timeline and circumstances aren’t exactly clear. But the claims grew to include more than just lights. People at the site reported their batteries were drained unusually quickly, that there were incidents of static electricity and perhaps burn marks or dead plant material, and that the fence posts became “magnetized” and “polarized”. Investigators brought in a hydrophone because they knew crystals were created by water, they said. The hydrophone was said to have detected the sound of water rushing below ground. Water coming up from the subsurface was also reported (after an above-normal rainfall period).

It all sounds very weird, the Murphys agree. The Murphys and the investigators who have shared bits of their experiences (noting the confidentiality agreements required by the Travel Channel until the show aires) are enthusiastically speculating about the causes. They think that the quartz crystal energy and the flowing water might be connected. In the Inception Radio interview, the Murphys suggest that the natural flow of earth energy has been disturbed. The crystals, they say, emit a “frequency” and they are part of a powerful “energy grid” in the earth – a theme related to ley lines. The crystals are interacting with the water’s electromagnetic charge and creating the light phenomena in the form of plasma. Ideas about the cause of these reported anomalies are all over the place. Also put forward was the idea that sound waves (or “vibrational frequencies”) may be producing the colors in the orbs which, the owners claim, are seen almost every night regardless of weather conditions. It is impossible to tell size and distance, let alone the source of the lights, from videos taken in the dark without markers or direction.

If you can believe it, things got even weirder. Another of the Murphy’s videos purports to show a rock on the site becoming weightless (a scale shown in the picture) and then levitating a foot off the ground! According to the Board Creek Crystal Mine Facebook page, others have reported that crystals obtained from the site levitated when they got home, which appears to exceed the bounds of known geological science (and sort of negates the idea that the site itself is producing some mysterious anti-gravity effect). Falling and rolling rocks, they suspect, might be coming out from “portals” (from another dimension). They also think the mine site may be a “vortex” – an area of the earth with special electromagnetic energy properties. Cheryl suggested that new scientific discoveries could explain this. In a comment to me on the FB page, she writes:

What’s amazing is that this last year or so, on the Science channel we hear scientists sharing theories of multiple universes, our universe is not finite, sound frequencies emitting color, (which is a possible theory for the colorful orbs we’ve been told), all the quantum science, it’s just amazing that we’re hearing things now, we never dreamed of hearing. We believe there has to be something with those levitating rocks to do with sound frequencies, or the continuing elevated electromagnetic field. For example, we just put new fence posts in the ground a month ago. They are now magnetized, when tested with a Gauss meter, and even polarized, when tested with a compass! What could cause that? It’s fascinating, and we prefer to approach this from a scientific viewpoint, but let’s face it… the number of testimonies of UFOs from credible witnesses for the last 50+ years, and now local neighbors who contacted us to share their stories of weird lights they’ve seen around here, does draw our attention!

The Murphys closed the mine until mid-July when it was reopened for special tours but not collecting. The new tours are billed as “UnXplained” and the website is curiously called metaphysicalcrystalsanctuary.com.  For more rampant speculation about the geology and hydrology and various fringe ideas, I suggest listening to the Murphys describe this in their own words available on the Inception Radio podcast, which focuses on potential UFO activity.

I contacted the Arkansas Geological Survey to ask them what they knew about this mine and the bizarre claims surrounding it. They hadn’t heard the news of these extraordinary events! In my discussions with geologist Corbin Cannon, we couldn’t come up with any ideas for why this particular mine is any more geologically special than the rest.

The mine is situated in the Stanley Shale. The quartz veins and associated minerals were hydrothermally emplaced during the closing stages of the mountain building event, around 280 to 245 million years ago. [See Howard, 2008] The Murphys seemed amazed at the consistency of the prismatic crystal shape, however, this is a normal habit of quartz. There are no mapped magnetic anomalies at this location and, though there is plenty of faulting due to the past orogenic stresses, the area is not seismically active. The shale is an aquitard (cannot transmit any useful amount of water) and the location is on a dip slope. This might explain the sound of water reported by the investigators. But it’s unclear if there are pipes underground that could also account for the sounds. The possibility exists that stray current could be leaking from the electrical lines from nearby houses and traveling through the ground. This may account for electromagnetic field observations. With regards to polarization and magnetization of the fence posts, pieces of metal regularly exhibit such polarity. It’s not unusual. I just checked a garden ornament on a metal post outside with a compass and, sure enough, the top and the bottom register differently on the compass. It’s not clear what Orville meant when he said the posts were magnetized, especially if they contain iron. Iron posts in the ground can also conduct any small current running through the ground from stray electricity lines. These various factors could be producing some electromagnetic field variations. So, we can see that many of the so-called anomalous claims aren’t strange at all but can seem so when taken out of context.

It’s not possible to make any conclusions from the videos of the lights. There is not enough information.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wntjfrS9Cq8

The videos of the levitating and moving rocks are also not helpful. They consist of series of still pictures taken with a game camera. The levitation effects could easily have been achieved with clear thread or fishing line. The associated flashes of lights in the photos along with the temperature changes and other effects can also be recreated without too much effort. No live video of the anomalous movement is available.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIuDhDUP15g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76LoCqKk5jU

Several visitors reported hearing thumps (presumed to be falling rocks) or seeing rocks roll by. I’m afraid that’s just not enough evidence to say something unusual is going on. A few unimpressive videos are not enough to convince most people that the physical laws of the universe are being violated at this location considering that alternative, non-paranormal explanations are readily available. If it is eventually well-documented that the site is one-of-a-kind, where nature behaves supernaturally, or some undocumented stresses are causing the quartz to produce orbs of light, then perhaps we can consider it a phenomenal place.

The paranormal vibe created at the site is a nifty way for the owners to distinguish their mine from the others in the area as a tourist attraction. That the site will be featured on a TV show is priceless promotion. The site joins hundreds of other locations around the U.S. that use spooky claims to draw paying visitors. The Murphys continue to encourage scientists to come and investigate but, so far, only MUFON, the TV crew and some tour groups seem to have been able to make collective observations there. The Arkansas Geological Survey has not been contacted even after this contact was suggested to the Murphys. It is the job of the AGS to catalog the geological information of the state. Documenting claims of a crystal energy vortex that causes all sorts of amazing anomalies and serves as an extraterrestrial refueling station sounds like a very urgent phenomenon to document!

A request to the MUFON investigator for their report on the site has not been answered. But the report is scheduled to be published in the MUFON Journal issue of November 2017, after the TV program airs.

Expedition Unknown special 25 Oct 2017

Part 4 of the series “Search for Extraterrestrials” aired on Travel Channel in October 2017. I’ll be blunt – don’t watch it. It contains basically no interesting information or evidence about the location. The presentation did not live up to the extreme hype and it’s cringey to have to watch Josh Gates act so over-the-top dramatic about a big nothingburger. They did see a light at the Board Camp site at night and recorded it, but it doesn’t tell us anything. It could have been a satellite, a drone, or some other man-made thing, but the details are lacking in order to make that determination. Plus, it didn’t rise from the ground or descend from the sky. It simply floated over. Apparently. Remember: this is television and not good television at that. Do not trust “infotainment”; it is not equivalent to facts.

The show did not mention the levitating rocks or other paranormal effects that the owners and visitors have promoted as happening there. The idea of crystals playing a role was not even broached. No background was really provided at all.

As it stands, the promotion of alien craft, strange lights, crystal energy and physics-defying rocks at this location (or any location) are without substantial evidence to support their reality. There are certainly many subjective claims but those are not reliable enough to make a conclusion about the cause being something otherworldly. Extraordinary claims must have extraordinary evidence to back them up and these crystal claims fizzled out.

#Arkansas #BoardCampCrystalMine #crystalHealing #crystals #earthEnergy #earthLights #levitatingRocks #lights #movingRocks #orbs #Paranormal #quartz

https://sharonahill.com/?p=479