Seneca guns heard along the coast Thursday afternoon

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WECT) – Once again much of southeast North Carolina had mysterious reports of rattling and shaking of the ground around 3 PM Thursday afternoon. The likely culprit was Seneca Guns.

For hundreds of years residents of the Carolinas and Virginia coast from time to time have reported mysterious booms or cannon sounds offshore. The are many theories as to what the "booms" could be. These theories include: small earthquakes, landslides, military exercises, the shifting of tectonic plates, and even meteors.

However just about all of the theories have holes in them according to researchers and scientists. For instance seismographs have not recorded any earthquake activity coinciding with the shaking. As for now there is no definitive answer as to what causes Seneca Guns and it remains one of the great mysteries for those living along our coast.