DistantNews
Support us
🇮🇩 Indonesia /Disasters & Emergencies

BMKG suspects Bandung booming sound may be linked to ancient lake

From CNN Indonesia · () Indonesian

Translated from Indonesian and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Residents across Greater Bandung heard booming sounds from Friday night into early Saturday, and BMKG suspects methane activity in an ancient lake may have been involved.
  • BMKG said satellite data, magnetic activity, lightning and cloud monitoring showed no anomalies around Bandung when the sounds occurred.
  • The agency did not link the sounds to an eruption of Anak Krakatau, citing the distance, the lack of similar reports elsewhere and wind conditions.

A booming sound heard across Greater Bandung may have come from methane-gas activity in an ancient lake, according to the Bandung office of Indonesia’s meteorological agency, BMKG. The agency stressed that this remains only a suspicion.

Suaidi Ahadi, head of the Bandung Geophysics Station, said scientific literature connects some “skyquake” phenomena with methane-gas activity. BMKG monitoring also found no clear explanation for the sound, which residents reported from Friday night, Sept. 4, into the early hours of Saturday, Sept. 5.

Suaidi said skyquake is a description of the phenomenon rather than a settled scientific explanation. Satellite information, magnetic readings, lightning and cloud monitoring showed no anomalies in Bandung and surrounding areas when the booming occurred. Lightning activity was instead concentrated around Krakatau.

There are several studies suggesting that methane-gas activity in the ancient lake may be involved, but this is still our suspicion.

· Suaidi AhadiThe BMKG official described the proposed explanation for the booming sound as unconfirmed.

BMKG did not conclude that the sound came from an eruption of Anak Krakatau. Suaidi noted that Bandung is far from Krakatau and that Jakarta, Bogor and Banten did not report the same phenomenon. He also said the wind at the time would not have carried a volcanic sound to Bandung.

“If a volcanic eruption had produced a sound that could be heard in Bandung, for example carried by the wind, the wind was blowing from east to west. That is interesting, isn’t it? It means we should not have been able to hear it in Bandung and its surroundings either,” Suaidi said. He invited BRIN and the geological agency to conduct further research and urged residents not to panic because BMKG found no anomaly around Bandung.

If a volcanic eruption had produced a sound that could be heard in Bandung, for example carried by the wind, the wind was blowing from east to west. That is interesting, isn’t it? It means we should not have been able to hear it in Bandung and its surroundings either.

· Suaidi AhadiHe explained why BMKG was reluctant to attribute the sound to Anak Krakatau.
About this summary

Originally published by CNN Indonesia in Indonesian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

More Stories

From Our Blog