Bell Island Boom
On Sunday, April 2, 1978, a huge bang was heard at Bell Island just before noon. The bang was so loud that people reported hearing it as far as 100 km away. The blast sent a shock wave that shook buildings on the island and killed some animals. The energy release was so powerful that the
Vela satellites (which the US government used to detect nuclear tests by other powers) noticed the phenomenon, now known as the
Bell Island Boom.
There were multiple reports of damaged electrical wiring and destroyed electrical appliances. The epicentre was around the Bickford family farm in the hamlet of
Bickfordville, near Lance Cove. They claimed to have seen a gigantic bluish flame and both their
television set and
fuse box had exploded. The chicken coop was completely destroyed and all the chickens had died. Neighbours soon discovered three large pits in the snow behind the farm, which were considered "epicentre". The son who was cycling nearby at that time also stated that he saw two luminous spheres flying by.
All sorts of hypotheses about the cause quickly emerged, from rational explanation attempts to
conspiracy theories. In general, based on the evidence, it is assumed that it was a
superbolt, a rare and very powerful type of
lightning occurring only about once per two million lightning strikes or so, normally high in the atmosphere or above the ocean. This was also the conclusion of two scientists at the
Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory who detected "superbolts" using data from the Vela satellites and therefore conducted an on-site investigation shortly after the incident.
) but it might be worth considering one or two of the explanations proposed for "skyquakes", very loud bangs apparently from the sky and without an obvious cause, sometimes heard over a large area.
