# Australian fireball **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [August 18, 2001, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-fireball/76849 "2001-08-18T02:22:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![realneal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/67e7ee/32.png) [@realneal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/realneal)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2001, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-fireball/76849/1 "2001-08-18T02:22:55Z")
Seems I heard on a science show that seismic changes in the right kind of rock can produce an electrical discharge; a sort of piezo-electric pulse. Maybe that could have happened in the Outback- a deep snap in the rock followed by a brief, intense, localized display of Aurora Australis. Just a thought. ---
**Author:** ![Swede\_Hollow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3bc359/32.png) [@Swede\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swede_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2001, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-fireball/76849/2 "2001-08-18T23:00:40Z")
Allow me to say _welcome aboard_. When making comments on a column please include a link to it so everyone is on the same level. Cecil’s column: [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/010817.html](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/010817.html) Also, since this is about Cecil’s column instead of a SDSTAFF report it should go under “Comments on Cecil’s Columns”. Can the moderator move it? ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2001, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-fireball/76849/3 "2001-08-19T01:24:29Z")
Well, the “piezo-electric effect” is usually only credited with generating the level of zap required to impersonate spook lights and earthquake lights. I doubt whether it could have produced a big bang like the Australian fireball. And, earthquake lights aren’t usually described as being like an “explosion”. But it’s an interesting suggestion. 🙂 [http://ufos.about.com/library/weekly/aa032999.htm](http://ufos.about.com/library/weekly/aa032999.htm) > [@](#): > > Many researchers theorize that the spook lights are caused by the same mechanism that generates earthquake lights. The theory goes that there are seismic (or tectonic) stresses in the locations where the lights appear that are not strong enough to cause an actual earthquake, but are enough to trigger the formation of the lights. The most often named mechanism for generating the lights by tectonic stress is the “piezo-electric effect”. This well-known effect is the generation of an electric charge by quartz when the mineral is put under pressure. [http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/earthquakes/destruct/1975Nov29/](http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/earthquakes/destruct/1975Nov29/) > [@](#): > > Residents and visitors on the Big Island of Hawai`i were sharply awakened during the early morning hours of November 29, 1975. At 3:35, a magnitude 5.7 shock registered on the seismic recording instruments at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. > > \ > > During and immediately after the main shock, ‘earthquake lights’ of white to bluish flashes or glows lasting several seconds were reported by a number of observers. Earthquake lights are associated with major earthquakes and have been observed in Japan and California. [http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/states/hawaii/hawaii\_history.html](http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/states/hawaii/hawaii_history.html) > [@](#): > > An intense earthquake occurred on January 22, 1938, with a magnitude on 6 3/4 and a maximum intensity VIII on Mauna Loa. The epicenter, located under the ocean about 40 miles east of the island of Molokai, was about as far north as earthquakes occur in the Hawaiian chain. On Maui there was general panic with people rushing from theaters. Flashing lights were reported by many. [http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF0/083.html](http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF0/083.html) > [@](#): > > Earthquake lights have been described as looking like auroral streamers diverging from a point on the horizon. Beams like those from a searchlight have been reported. Other reports describe sheets or circular glowing regions, either touching the ground or in detached clouds above ground. BTW, Cecil, your [cheniere.org](http://cheniere.org) link gives me a “Page Cannot be Displayed” half the time. However, always anxious to be of service to my fellow Dopers, here’s another link to “Bright Skies” by Harry Mason, Part 1. [http://www.millenngroup.com/repository/secret/brightskies.html](http://www.millenngroup.com/repository/secret/brightskies.html) And here’s a link to “Bright Skies, Part 5”, which contains a perfectly fascinating discussion of the Oklahoma City “bombing”. (Hint: The U.S. Government was responsible.) [http://www.millenngroup.com/repository/secret/brightskies5.html](http://www.millenngroup.com/repository/secret/brightskies5.html) > [@](#): > > It is my contention that the OKC event was the result of a double-pronged Tesla type EM weapon strike that caused the Earth’s dielectric field to erupt up through the building… [Spock voice] Fascinating… [/Spock voice] ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2001, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-fireball/76849/4 "2001-08-19T01:56:21Z")
> [@](#): > > It is my contention that the OKC event was the result of a double-pronged Tesla type EM weapon strike that caused the Earth’s dielectric field to erupt up through the building… [Animal House Voice] Bullsh_t! Bl_wjob![/Animal House Voice] Nice catch, **DDG**.