Barisal guns or fog guns (''mistpoeffers'' (fog dissipators) in Belgium and Netherlands, ''Seeschießen'' (sea/lake gunshots) in Germany, ''brontidi'' (thunder-like) or ''baturlio marinas'' in Italy)
are a series of loud booms heard near the
Barisal
Barisal ( or ; bn, বরিশাল, ), officially known as Barishal, is a major city that lies on the banks of the Kirtankhola river in south-central Bangladesh. It is the largest city and the administrative headquarter of both Barisal Dist ...
region of
East Bengal
ur,
, common_name = East Bengal
, status = Province of the Dominion of Pakistan
, p1 = Bengal Presidency
, flag_p1 = Flag of British Bengal.svg
, s1 = East ...
(currently in
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
) in the 19th century.
There are various theories about the origin of the sound. One common explanation is that it was caused by the sound of waves, broken up by local topography,
but geological origins have also been proposed.
The sound is an example of a
skyquake
A skyquake is a phenomenon where a loud booming sound is reported to originate from the sky. The sound may cause noticeable vibration in a building or across a particular area. Those who experience skyquakes typically do not have a clear explanati ...
– an unexplained sudden loud sound without corresponding
earthquake
An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...
activity. Similar sounds have been reported in many waterfront communities around the world such as the
Ganges Delta and Brahmaputra River delta in India,
the East Coast and inland Finger Lakes of the United States, as well as areas of the North Sea, the lakes of southern Germany, Japan and Italy; and sometimes away from water.
The unexplained source of the phenomenon has drawn mystical interpretations, for example in
Theosophical
Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion a ...
writings.
[{{Cite book, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lkhDAQAAMAAJ, title=Lucifer, publisher=Theosophical Publishing Company, year=1890, pages=289–291, language=en]
References
Barishal District
Unidentified sounds