Scandalous "Summerville Ghost" South Carolina may have a geological explanation – IFLSCIENCE

Since the mid-20th century, people have been telling stories about a ghost chasing the railway path between Charleston and Sontrovel in South Carolina. Although there are a number of versions of history, as it will happen to folklore, the story generally goes like this: a man or works on the railway, or sometimes he just travels on it, was hit by a train and killed and/or beheaded. It is not the person who is said to pursue the railways, but his wife.

“While the story goes through the rest of his life and even after her own death, the distracted wife says he returns to the lantern tracks, looking for the remains of her husband,” explains Dr. Susan Howg in his new book.

In the 1950s and 60s and then there were a number of strange observations on the nearby road parallel to the rail tracks, with witnesses reporting that strange lights at first glance sail in the air. In the end, the road, known as the Old Sheep Island Road, became known locally as Old Light Road and has become an attraction for Ghosthunters and the like.

The ghost and railway tracks made me think about sparks.

Dr. Susan Huff

The bills of the lights usually describe them as small, ball -shaped and blue or green in color, although they are sometimes witnessed by red or white balls. While the lights are generally visible at some distance, they occasionally witness a hurry to the observer, or sometimes it can be seen to grow in size. One account puts the lights as a basketball size and moves in the middle of the air for a few minutes.

On top of that, nearby houses and establishments have been reported to ghost observations, as well as other strange events such as cars, trembling, doors stabbing and whispering voices that are heard without a source.

Although it would be easy to reject these accounts as simply ghostly stories, transmitted and made more complex, looking at the bills, Huff found reasons to believe that there could be a common, geological thread.

Shaking cars, for example, can be removed on earthquakes with a shallow source. The glowing balls, far from being a lantern worn by a ghost, can be “earthquake lights”. Although there is no single adopted theory of what causes them, there are several ideas. One is that they are caused by gas release from the ground.

“The gas release hypothesis includes two possible mechanisms,” Huff explained to IFLSCIENCE. “As an inert gas, the radon will not ignite, but it could potentially be associated with a phenomenon of glowing discharge, with electrons moving in an excited state and then returning to their earth orbital sheath. This usually happens at low low temperatures near the freezing Point.

Alternatively, the gas release hypothesis suggests that they can be caused by the ignition of flammable gases as they are exposed to oxygen.

“The ghost and railway tracks associated me to think of sparks,” Huff continued. “But the association can have a different explanation, such as the tendency of railways to follow corridors that are carved by errors.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8ma0nkcqis

As for the noises heard by the locals of the area, this can be reduced to high -frequency trembling noises as a result of tremor. It is not the first time the ghostly ghosts were sounded.

“Sound waves of 20-200 Hz frequency are within the sound range,” Huff wrote in his study. “In addition, studies suggest that infrarin noise, that is, at frequencies lower than 20 Hz, can cause noticeable sensations. You believe that the anterior redevelopment of the Charleston earthquake of 1886, for example, is sometimes reported as” detonations detonation “, which implies high frequency energy from braid braids, nearby source.”

Huff began the project while considering the 1886 earthquake, and in general, the Seismic Zone of Charleston, before being inspired by Ghost Science Newsletter in USGS to look at these ghostly stories further. However, work can help help geological research, as well as explain some rather strange ghosts.

“The study felt too frivolous about words when I started, but it can actually help deal with a difficult and important problem: which of the many existing mistakes in the East (and elsewhere) are active? Are there more potential seismic areas than the small handfuls that produced large earthquakes during the short historical record? “Huff told IFLSCIENCE.

“I hope that ghost stories can provide a useful goal for investigations, both for understanding the earthquake and to identify shallow active errors in Eastern North America.”

The study was published in seismological research letters.