Category Archives: Spooky Geology

Mystery booms and skyquakes

By | November 13, 2021
0 Comment
mystery booms

The world is a noisy place. But some sounds shake you to your foundation. Mystery booms that come out of nowhere and have indiscernible sources scare people and leave them wondering, “What just happened?” Every week, we find a few reports of “mystery booms” in the news. People report a surprising, loud noise that shakes their house and rattles their windows. This is not a new phenomenon. Reports of such sounds can be traced back through news accounts from over a century ago.

Gates to Hell and Hellmouths

By | August 22, 2021
0 Comment
Gate to hell, spooky geology

In the past and even today, some believe that you can get to Hell via a portal or entrance from earth. There are countless tales of trips to the underworld made by mythical persons. There continue to be legends about gates to hell around the world that we might access today. Join me for a tour of Hell mouths.

Oracle of Delphi: Snake Death Gas or God’s Breath

By | May 5, 2021
0 Comment
Oracle of Delphi, Spooky Geology

The colorful and dramatic accounts of the Oracle of Delphi in Greece spanning many centuries appear to be strongly related to the geological setting and seismic activity of the locale. The cultural and geologic history is long and complex. Over time, people have speculated on the explanation as being supernatural, psychic, geological, or a hoax. It took a multidisciplinary effort to reach the most probable proposed explanation we have so far, but there are still many details we’ll never know.

Legends and science of bottomless holes

By | November 17, 2020
0 Comment
bottomless pit, spooky geology

There are countless holes in the ground. Some have water. Some are just open void and darkness. When we can’t readily discern the depth, the hole begets additional legendary characteristics, including that of being bottomless. Let’s check out the legends of bottomless holes.

Ringing rocks and sonorous stones

By | October 8, 2020
1 Comment
Ringing rocks

Ringing rocks, rocks that make a bell-like sound when hit with a hammer, are rare but occur across the world. They are seen as magical, mysterious, and scientifically curious. 

Pic de Bugarach: The mysterious mountain

By | July 17, 2020
1 Comment
Pic de Bugarach

Pic de Bugarach in Aude, France, is a place that effortlessly combines natural wonder and legends. Add to its history a heaping portion of serious scientific misunderstandings, flavor with rumors and imaginative speculation, then bake for centuries, and the result is a bizarre mashup of fact and fiction that satisfies in our modern spooky times.

Faces in Places: Mimetoliths

By | May 17, 2020
0 Comment
mimetolith, spooky geology

Rock formations that look like faces are called “mimetoliths”. Faces in rock can accrue great cultural significance as land marks. Societies place spiritual meaning into features that appear meaningful because they resemble a human form.

Gravity Roads, Magnetic Hills, and Mystery Spots

By | February 2, 2020
3 Comments
gravity hill, spooky geology

Mystery spots, magnetic hills, or gravity hills are local places named for their unusual characteristic of making the observer confused or unbalanced. Exploited as tourist spots, they have been explained as mysteries of nature. But they have a more complex and interesting cause.

Pole Holes and the Hollow Earth

By | January 10, 2020
0 Comment
hollow earth

A sci-fi trope, some people actually believed that there is substantial space inside the earth’s sphere where curious things occur. The history of the hollow earth idea is complex and far more serious than you might guess. It definitely qualifies as some spooky alternative to geology.