The mystery of ‘ghost lanterns’ haunting a town in South Carolina may need been solved.
The glowing balls of sunshine have often been spotted by an old railway track and were said to belong to the ghost of a lady who lost her husband in a train accident.
Now a scientist believes earthquakes could be behind the spooky phenomenon.
The ghostly glowing lights in a distant area of Summerville, South Carolina, have been recorded since mid-Twentieth century, alongside reports of slamming doors, footsteps, and disturbed animals and birds.
Legend has it the lights are lanterns, carried by a ghost whose husband lost his head in a train accident.
But a seismologist for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Susan Hough, has crashed the party for ghost hunters, as she believes the lights are nothing to do with paranormal in any respect.
She argued in a research paper in January the ‘lanterns’ were actually a phenomenon called earthquake lights.
Earthquake lights have been reported the world over, and are described as ‘balls of sunshine, streamers, and regular glows’ that are visible across the time of an earthquake.
Seismologists are yet to agree a theory for why these lights appear in the primary place.
One expert has suggested they’re a results of underground gases like methane or radon ignited by static electricity or rock movements.
Hough says this theory makes essentially the most sense relating to the Summerville ghost lanterns.
She studied the primary reports of the glowing lights within the Nineteen Fifties and Sixties and located they coincided with three magnitude 3.5 to 4.4 earthquakes that took place only a couple of kilometres away.
The speculation is that even smaller unrecognisable earthquakes have occurred since.
The steel rails of the defunct rail line in addition to nearby scrap heaps could possibly be igniting the underground gases.
As for why sightings of the ghost lights are only on dark and misty nights, Hough said these ignitable gases could be trapped in water droplets before lighting up.
Earthquakes would also explain other paranormal reports comparable to shaking cars and swinging doors and spooked animals.
The scientist acknowledges her theory is unproven, nevertheless it could possibly be tested by measuring gas emissions from the bottom in areas where the ‘ghosts’ are seen.
The realm was the scene of the infamous 1886 Charleston earthquake, which caused 60 deaths and as much as $6million (such as $186.51million in 2023) in damage.
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