Over a year ago, we published a series of investigations pertaining to the "mystery boom" phenomenon, concluding that these strange tremblings and odd explosions were related to legal and illegal silica sand mining operations. We arrived at this conclusion based on the following facts:
-Virtually every location where these booms are heard occur in areas with sandstone and silica deposits.
-The timing of the booms is directly proportional to increases in demand for "frac sand" (silica).
With the United States becoming the world leader in natural gas production, the demand for silica sand-- an essential component of the hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") process-- has soared to an all-time high. Quite literally, "frac sand" is worth its weight in gold, resulting in hundreds of bootleg mining operations springing up all over the country.
We have investigated these mystery booms in Rhode Island, Illinois, Kentucky, Idaho (read the results of our investigation here) and have discovered that every single one of these booms took place in areas with a history of sand and silica mining. We investigated more booms in Kansas, Utah and California and reached the very same conclusion (the results of these investigations can be read here).
And now comes word of yet another round of mystery booms, this time in Kissimmee, Florida. According to Bay News 9, these booms start around 10 p.m. each night and sound like thunder, or a bomb exploding. These mystery booms can be heard throughout western Osceola and eastern Polk counties.
If our theory about these booms is correct, as we believe it to be, the recent Florida booms should fit into the criteria we have mentioned above. And, surprise surprise, once again these "mystery" booms can be linked to extensive sand and silica mining operations. Just take a look at the Florida state D.E.P. map below, which lists the sites of mining operations.
 |
| White circle indicates location of mystery booms. |
As you can see, all of those yellow dots indicate sites of silica and sand mining operations. A large concentration of these yellow dots appear near the town of Loughman, which is just 12 miles from Kissimmee. The booms have also been heard in Haines City, which is located within 10 miles of the nearest legal silica mining operation. According to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Florida ranks 15th in the nation in industrial sand production.
Now that we have established that these so-called mystery booms are indeed taking place in an area with extensive sand mining operations, let's turn our attention to the timing of these booms. The Bay News 9 report states that these booms have been happening regularly for the past three weeks. If our theory is correct, that means the demand for silica sand should have spiked during this time period. The chart below illustrates the stock prices of US Silica- the nation's largest producer of frac sand- over the past three months. Not surprisingly, there was a marked increase in demand for silica sand during the time these mystery booms occurred.
There you have it, folks. Once again we have explained the unexplainable and have solved the mystery of mystery booms. So forget about the conspiracy theories and fear-mongering and end-of-the-world hullaballoo you have heard or read elsewhere; there is, we believe, a perfectly logical explanation for every mystery under the sun.
However, if you're still not convinced, read our previous articles about mystery booms:
http://journalofthebizarre.blogspot.com/2013/02/solved-mystery-booms.html
http://journalofthebizarre.blogspot.com/2013/05/more-on-mystery-booms.html
http://journalofthebizarre.blogspot.com/2013/03/further-analysis-of-mystery-booms.html
http://journalofthebizarre.blogspot.com/2013/03/update-mystery-booms.html