- These lights aren’t ghosts. They’re just the result of another poorly understood, mysterious phenomenon.
Imagine walking by a dark, foreboding forest late at night. Suddenly, in the blackness, you see something chilling.
The light of a single, faint lantern floats in the distance. Yet you can’t see the lantern or its carrier.
This spooky phenomenon, alongside other seemingly related hauntings, has taken place around a South Carolina town for decades. Locals have written it off as the work of a ghost dwelling in the surrounding woods.
Of course, once a researcher heard of this story, she had to start looking for an explanation to put an end to years of entertaining folklore. Yet, her studies ended up with a surprising explanation.
The mysterious lights aren’t the work of ghosts. Instead, she believes they’re earthquake lights, which is a whole another unexplained and poorly understood phenomenon.
At least there’s still some mystery left.
The Summerville Lights
The Summerville lights are a strange, creepy phenomenon that takes place in the South Carolinian town of Summerville (what a shocker). It happens along a short stretch of Sheep Island Road on the outskirts of the town, where a railroad once ran.
Since the 1950s, and potentially even earlier, those traveling on the road report seeing unexplainable floating orbs of light. Often colored a pale green or blue, they can appear on the road or within the surrounding trees.
But that’s not all. Some who have seen the lights have also reported their cars suddenly shaking violently, hearing disembodied whispers, and even seeing ghostly shapes flitting around with the lights.
The spookiness doesn’t end on the road, however. Those living in the area have experienced other seemingly paranormal things, like doors slamming shut on their own, sounds of footsteps emanating from empty rooms, objects moving by themselves, and pets and wildlife suddenly becoming scared and disturbed.
It sure sounds like something ghastly is going on. And the locals know exactly what it is — or at least they have a theory.
According to Summerville folklore, the strange hauntings are the work of a grieving widow who lost her husband in a railway accident. To this day, she follows the tracks of the old railroad, holding a ghostly lantern as she looks for her lost love.
What Are Earthquake Lights?
Susan Hough is a seismologist working for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). She recently published a study in which she reviewed reports of the Summerville lights from her research perspective.
Hough believes that there is no ghostly widow haunting the town. Instead, she believes that the blue and green-glowing orbs are earthquake lights.
Which doesn’t really make the whole thing any less mysterious.
Earthquake lights are a strange light phenomenon that may happen before, during, or after the ground rumbles. They may appear as spheres, sparks, flashes, streams, or virtually any other imaginable shape of disembodied light.
They’re not a new occurrence, either. The oldest known recorded instance of creepy lights appearing during an earthquake comes from Japan in 869.
Despite their best efforts, scientists have not been able to explain why or how earthquake lights happen. Some believe they are formed by ionized oxygen released from the cracking ground, but in her study, Hough puts out a competing theory.
She believes the lights are the result of trapped gas, like methane, being released from the ground during an earthquake. That gas then gets ignited by a spark caused by static electricity, rocks rubbing together — or old railroad equipment.
Similar strange lights have been reported around abandoned railroads worldwide, and Summerville has just such a decaying railway. It’s possible that an earthquake could cause stones to impact with the railroad’s metal structures, striking sparks that then ignite the escaping gas into ghostly lights.
A Reasonable Explanation
But hold your horses, here. Are there even any earthquakes in the Summerville area?
Well, yes, there are. They may be minor, but earthquakes do happen in this region.
For instance, in August 1959, the ground shook with a magnitude of 4.4 on the Richter scale some two miles away from Sheep Island Road. Coincidentally, reports of the ghost lights cropped up around the same time.
Similar incidents happened twice more by the end of 1960. Hough believes the Summerville area might actually experience frequent earthquakes, but they’re too small to really register to people — but they would be enough to release gas from the soil.
Seismic activity could also explain many of the other phenomena associated with the ghost lights. Suddenly shaking cars? A minor earthquake. Doors and objects moving seemingly on their own while disembodied footsteps travel through the house? A minor earthquake.
Freaked-out animals? You bet that’s a minor earthquake, since our furry and feathery friends can hear and feel earth movements that we big humans would never notice.
Granted, Hough admits she has no hard data to back up her theory. She suggests performing tests to measure gas emissions and looking for active seismic faults in the area.
She believes the results of such a study could help seismologists understand earthquake activity in eastern North America. And if there is no seismic activity, at least we’ll know the ghost widow just might be behind the lights.