Tennessee County Officials Don’t Know Cause of Mysterious Booms

Hamblen County officials are trying to determine the source of several mysterious loud booms heard in and around Morristown, Tenn., over the past two years. The latest occurred Tuesday morning.

Chris Bell is the director of the Hamblen County Emergency Management Agency. He told the Citizen Tribune that the Center for Earthquake Research positioned seismic detectors in Hamblen two months ago to determine the cause of the periodic tremors, some of which have appeared to be centered in west Hamblen County while others have appeared to come from central Morristown.

One thing is certain. The Tuesday morning boom was no earthquake. The detectors determined that whatever made the noise happened above ground, Bell said.

Ross Litz, owner of Morristown Iron and Metals, told the paper that a vehicle going through the shredder at his business exploded Tuesday morning. Litz said that such explosions happen occasionally when workers fail to drain all of the gasoline from a car’s fuel tank.

But he added that explosions are rare, and his business is not responsible for all of the booms heard since 2013.

Bell could not say whether the car explosion was the cause of the Tuesday noise and tremors reported by south Hamblen residents.