by David Braun
Three nearly identical, UFO-like cloud formations appeared over Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in January 2011, sparking online discussions linking the features to everything from the Second Coming to recent mass bird deaths to secret military experiments. At least one scientist believes the so-called hole-punch clouds have a military explanation, though it may not be quite what conspiracy theorists expect.
What Are Little Clouds Made Of?
Earth isn’t the only planet covered with clouds. Earth’s sister planet Venus has them, too. Instead of being composed of water droplets and ice crystals, though, Venus’s clouds are made of sulfuric acid, and would be deadly to humans.
The Clouds Appear
On January 7, 2011, IT technician Wesley Tyler was running out to his car for a computer part when he noticed the saucerlike formations. “At first we thought they were tornado clouds, but the air was so still—like mausoleum still,” Tyler said. “You just knew it was unusual. I’ve lived on the beach for years and never seen anything like that.”
Back home, he uploaded pictures of the clouds to Facebook, tagging a meteorologist friend, who later identified the phenomena as hole-punch clouds, or punch-hole clouds.
Hole-Punch Clouds
Hole-punch clouds are miniature snowstorms that can occur in thin, sub-freezing cloud layers. The lack of fine particles, such as dust, in the clouds means water droplets have little to condense around, so they don’t turn to ice until the cloud hits about minus 38 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 36 degrees Celsius).
“Basically, the water molecules become sluggish enough at this temperature to form their own cluster of ice that produces an ice crystal spontaneously,” according to ice microphysicist Andrew Heymsfield.
When airplanes ascend into this type of cloud, the rearward force created by propellers or by air forced over wings causes air to expand. This expansion can cool a vaguely circular section of the cloud to the point where many of the water droplets freeze and ice crystals form, according to a June hole-punch cloud study co-authored by Heymsfield in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
Over the next 45 minutes or so, ice crystals grow and spread outward, often resulting in a tightly contained, roughly half-hour snowstorm—leaving behind a hole “punched” in the cloud.
A hole-punch cloud over Mobile, Alabama (Photo Credit 9.5)
Conspiracy Theory or Divine Message?
Tyler, the photographer, was skeptical of the airplane explanation, due to the sheer number and close proximity of the cloud formations. “I’ve scoured the Internet and have yet to find more than one hole-punch cloud in a single frame,” he said.
Myrtle Beach International, he added, is “not that busy an airport.” And, he said, “I’ve read that these clouds form at 20,000 feet [6,100 meters], and these clouds looked like they were right above us. “I doubt they were created by airplanes,” Tyler concluded—and he’s not alone.
After his pictures were posted on SpaceWeather.com, the Myrtle Beach resident began hearing from people all over the world. Some suspected a more colorful cause—perhaps the military-funded High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, or HAARP, which conspiracy theorists have linked to earthquakes, chronic fatigue syndrome, global warming, and other phenomena.
Though remote, the observatory-and-antenna facility in Gakona, Alaska, is anything but secret. Even so, its use of radio waves to “excite” areas of Earth’s ionosphere has helped convince some that HAARP can control weather—and perhaps even create triple hole-punch clouds.
“There is no doubt,” one HAARP theorist wrote of the Myrtle Beach apparition on the Big Wobble message board, “it’s an electromagnetic corridor produced by our technology.” Another wrote on starseeds.net, “This could be related to HAARP or some weather manipulation as it also ties in with the bird deaths.”
And on Rapture in the Air, a site devoted to signs of the Second Coming of Christ, “mike” wrote, “Hope the photos was taken after 3 invisible space [arks] came down from heaven which the Lord has sent to earth …”
While Tyler doesn’t necessarily buy these theories, he thought the airplane explanation was flawed. “There must be another explanation—natural or otherwise.”
“The hole sizes and the structure of the snow falling out of the holes suggest that all three holes were made at nearly the same time. My suspicion is that military aircraft were flying in formation or one behind the other.”
Andrew Heymsfield
ice microphysicist, on the more likely cause of the odd cloud formations
Military Explanation
To Heymsfield, the physicist, the explanation is both natural and otherwise. “To me, it’s a slam dunk” that these are hole-punch clouds that were created the usual way—by planes—said Heymsfield, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.
There’s “nothing at all” surprising about the picture, he added. For one thing, it’s the right type of cloud—thin, with no other layers above it—as evidenced by the clear skies just beyond, he said. And the cloud layer’s temperature fits the hole-punch model: 14 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 10 degrees Celsius), according to National Weather Service records.
As for the cloud being low in the sky—9,000 feet (2,700 meters), according to the weather service—“it doesn’t matter,” as long as the cloud layer is cold enough, he said.
But why three together? “The hole sizes and the structure of the snow falling out of the holes suggest that all three holes were made at nearly the same time,” he said. “My suspicion is that military aircraft were flying in formation or one behind the other.”
TRUTH:
HOLE-PUNCH CLOUDS ARE FORMED WHEN AIRPLANES PASS THROUGH CLOUDS IN THE RIGHT ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS AND MAKE LIQUID WATER DROPLETS FREEZE AND DROP AS SNOW, LEAVING A CIRCULAR FISSURE.
Training Planes
And in fact, it’s “very common” for training maneuvers to take place over Myrtle Beach, according to Robert Sexton, community relations manager for nearby Shaw Air Force Base. More to the point, Sexton confirmed that fighter jets from Shaw and from the South Carolina Air National Guard’s 169th Fighter Wing were training off the South Carolina coast on January 7 between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.
“After us, the Marines were in the airspace from 3 to 4 p.m. with F-18s” out of the Marine Corps air station in Beaufort, South Carolina, he emailed.
After having heard the new evidence, Tyler, the photographer, said he’s convinced by the aircraft explanation, though he initially seemed slightly disappointed by its straightforwardness. But “that’s still cool enough,” Tyler decided. “I’m a conspiracist, but also a naturalist.”
SINKHOLE SCIENCE
Giant Sinkholes
Pierce Guatemala
In 2007 and again in 2010, giant sinkholes opened up beneath the streets of Guatemala City. What could have caused these disasters?
A huge sinkhole in Guatemala City, Guatemala, crashed into being in 2010, reportedly swallowing a three-story building—and echoing a similar, 2007 occurrence.
Explaining Sinkholes
Sinkholes are natural depressions that can form when water-saturated soil and other particles become too heavy and cause the roofs of existing voids in the soil to collapse. Another way sinkholes can form is if water enlarges a natural fracture in a limestone bedrock layer. As the crack gets bigger, the topsoil gently slumps, eventually leaving behind a sinkhole.
The 2010 sinkhole in Guatemala had likely been forming for several weeks or even years before floodwaters caused it to cave in. (Photo Credit 9.6)
Sinkholes are particularly prevalent when heavy rains follow a long period of drought, said Jonathan Martin, a geologist at the University of Florida. Drought can empty subterranean cavities of water, making them less able to support the overlying soil—flooding only adds to the danger. “If there’s a tropical storm and all of a sudden the soil above the cavity is filled with water instead of air, the weight will cause the [sinkhole] to collapse,” Martin said.
Although the exact mechanism behind it is unclear, the 2010 sinkhole had likely been weeks or even years in the making—floodwaters from tropical storm Agatha caused it to finally collapse, scientists say. The sinkhole appears to be about 60 feet (18 meters) wide and about 30 stories deep, said James Currens, a hydrogeologist at the University of Kentucky.
TRUTH:
IN THE U.S., THE MOST DAMAGE FROM SINKHOLES TENDS TO OCCUR IN FLORIDA, TEXAS, ALABAMA, MISSOURI, KENTUCKY, TENNESSEE, AND PENNSYLVANIA.
Sewer Problems
A ruptured sewer line is thought to have caused the sinkhole that appeared in Guatemala City in 2007. The 2010 Guatemala sinkhole could have formed in a similar fashion, Currens said. A burst sanitary or storm sewer may have been slowly saturating the surrounding soil for a long time before tropical storm Agatha added to the inundation. “The tropical storm came along and would have dumped even more water in there, and that could have been the final trigger that precipitated the collapse,” Currens said.
Depending on the makeup of the subsurface layer, the sinkhole “could eventually enlarge and take in more buildings,” he said. Typically, officials fill in sinkholes with large rocks and other debris. But this one “is so huge that it’s going to take a lot of fill material to fill it,” Currens said. “I don’t know what they’re going to do.”
SWELL SUPERVOLCANO
Yellowstone Has Bulged
as Magma Pocket Swells
A supervolcano beneath Yellowstone National Park has been taking some deep “breaths” lately, causing the ground to rise as much as 10 inches (25 cm). Is a super-eruption far behind?
Yellowstone National Park’s supervolcano took a deep “breath” in 2011, causing miles of ground to rise dramatically, scientists report.
A Sleeping Giant
The simmering volcano has produced major eruptions—each a thousand times more powerful than Mount St. Helens’s 1980 eruption—three times in the past 2.1 million years. Yellowstone’s caldera, which covers a 25- by 37-mile (40-by 60-kilometer) swath of Wyoming, is an ancient crater formed after the last big blast, some 640,000 years ago. Since then, about 30 smaller eruptions—including one as recent as 70,000 years ago—have filled the caldera with lava and ash, producing the relatively flat landscape we see today.
But beginning in 2004, scientists saw the ground above the caldera rise upward at rates as high as 2.8 inches (7 centimeters) a year. The rate slowed between 2007 and 2010 to a centimeter a year or less. Still, since the start of the swelling, ground levels over the volcano have been raised by as much as 10 inches (25 centimeters) in places. “It’s an extraordinary uplift, because it covers such a large area and the rates are so high,” said the University of Utah’s Bob Smith, a longtime expert in Yellowstone’s volcanism.
TRUTH:
BOLTS OF LIGHTNING CAN SHOOT OUT OF AN ERUPTING VOLCANO.
Castle Geyser in Yellowstone National Park (Photo Credit 9.7)
Predicting the Next “Burp”
Scientists think a swelling magma reservoir 4 to 6 miles (7 to 10 kilometers) below the surface is driving the uplift. Fortunately, the surge doesn’t seem to herald an imminent catastrophe, Smith said. “At the beginning, we were concerned it could be leading up to an eruption,” said Smith, who co-authored a paper on the surge published in the December 3, 2010, edition of Geophysical Research Letters.
“But once we saw [the magma] was at a depth of 10 kilometers, we weren’t so concerned. If it had been at depths of 2 or 3 kilometers [1 or 2 miles], we’d have been a lot more concerned.” Studies of the surge, he added, may offer valuable clues about what’s going on in the volcano’s subterranean plumbing, which may eventually help scientists predict when Yellowstone’s next volcanic “burp” will break out.
Taking Regular Breaths
Smith and colleagues at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Yellowstone Volcano Observatory have been mapping the caldera’s rise and fall using tools such as global positioning systems (GPS) and interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR), which gives ground-deformation measurements.
Ground deformation can suggest that magma is moving toward the surface before an eruption: The flanks of Mount St. Helens, for example, swelled dramatically in the months before its 1980 explosion. But there are also many examples, including the Yellowstone supervolcano, where it appears the ground has risen and fallen for thousands of years without an eruption.
Liquid Hot Magma
According to current theory, Yellowstone’s magma reservoir is fed by a plume of hot rock surging upward from Earth’s mantle. When the amount of magma flowing into the chamber increases, the reservoir swells like a lung and the surface above expands upward. Models suggest that during the recent uplift, the reservoir was filling with 0.02 cubic miles (0.1 cubic kilometer) of magma a year. When the rate of increase slows, the theory goes, the magma likely moves off horizontally to solidify and cool, allowing the surface to settle back down.
Based on geologic evidence, Yellowstone has probably seen a continuous cycle of inflation and deflation during the past 15,000 years, and the cycle will likely continue, Smith said. Surveys show, for example, that the caldera rose some 7 inches (18 centimeters) between 1976 and 1984 before dropping back about 5.5 inches (14 centimeters) during the next decade.
“These calderas tend to go up and down, up and down,” he said. “But every once in a while they burp, creating hydrothermal explosions, earthquakes, or—ultimately—they can produce volcanic eruptions.”
Volcanoes and Geysers and Quakes, Oh My!
Predicting when an eruption might occur is extremely difficult, in part because the fine details of what’s going on under Yellowstone are still undetermined. What’s more, continuous records of Yellowstone’s activity have been made only since the 1970s—a tiny slice of geologic time—making it hard to draw conclusions. “Clearly some deep source of magma feeds Yellowstone, and since Yellowstone has erupted in the recent geological past, we know that there is magma at shallower depths too,” said Dan Dzurisin, a Yellowstone expert with the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory in Washington State.
“There has to be magma in the crust, or we wouldn’t have all the hydrothermal activity that we have,” Dzurisin added. “There is so much heat coming out of Yellowstone right now that if it wasn’t being reheated by magma, the whole system would have gone stone cold since the time of the last eruption 70,000 years ago.”
The large hydrothermal system just below Yellowstone’s surface, which produces many of the park’s top tourist attractions, may also play a role in ground swelling, Dzurisin said, though no one is sure to what extent. “Could it be that some uplift is caused not by new magma coming in but by the hydrothermal system sealing itself up and pressurizing?” he asked. “And then it subsides when it springs a leak and depressurizes? These details are difficult.”
Supervolcanoes of the World
1. Lake Toba, Sumatra, Indonesia—The 1,080-square-mile Toba caldera can be described as Yellowstone’s “big sister.” It erupted 74,000 years ago, triggering a global cold spell.
2. Long Valley, California—At 200 square miles, the Long Valley caldera’s most recent eruption was in Mono Lake, 250 years ago.
3. Lake Taupo, New Zealand—A massive eruption created Lake Taupo 26,500 years ago, when the caldera collapsed and filled up with water. The 485-square-mile caldera erupted again in the year A.D. 181.
4. Valles Caldera, New Mexico—The 175-square-mile Valles caldera last erupted 1.2 million years ago. Hot springs around it remain active.
5. Aira, Japan—On January 10, 1914, the Sakura-jima volcano, which forms part of the 150-square-mile Aira caldera, became active and caused hundreds of earthquakes. Two days later, it erupted with ash, steam, and lava.
Feel It Shakin’
And it’s not a matter of simply watching the ground rise and fall. Different areas may move in different directions and be interconnected in unknown ways, reflecting the as yet unmapped network of volcanic and
hydrothermal plumbing. The roughly 3,000 earthquakes in Yellowstone each year may offer even more clues about the relationship between ground uplift and the magma chamber. For example, between December 26, 2008, and January 8, 2009, some 900 earthquakes occurred in the area around Yellowstone Lake.
This earthquake “swarm” may have helped to release pressure on the magma reservoir by allowing fluids to escape, and this may have slowed the rate of uplift, the University of Utah’s Smith said. “Big quakes [can have] a relationship to uplift and deformations caused by the intrusion of magma,” he said. “How those intrusions stress the adjacent faults, or how the faults might transmit stress to the magma system, is a really important new area of study.”
Overall, USGS’s Dzurisin added, “The story of Yellowstone deformation has gotten more complex as we’ve had better and better technologies to study it.”
CLOUD RECOGNITION
Brand-New Cloud
Choppy, undulating clouds could be examples of the first new type of cloud to be recognized since 1951. Or so hopes Gavin Pretor-Pinney, founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society.
In 2005 British cloud enthusiast Gavin Pretor-Pinney said he began getting photos of “dramatic” and “weird” clouds that he didn’t know how to define. In 2009, he began preparing to propose the odd formations as a new cloud variety to the UN’s World Meteorological Organization, which classifies cloud types.
