The mystery of ‘ghost lanterns’ haunting a town in South Carolina might have been solved.
The glowing balls of light have often been spotted by an old railway track and were said to belong to the ghost of a woman who lost her husband in a train accident.
Now a scientist believes earthquakes might be behind the spooky phenomenon.
The ghostly glowing lights in a remote area of Summerville, South Carolina, have been recorded since mid-20th century, alongside reports of slamming doors, footsteps, and disturbed animals and birds.
Legend has it the lights are lanterns, carried by a ghost whose husband lost his head in a train accident.
But a seismologist for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Susan Hough, has crashed the party for ghost hunters, as she believes the lights are nothing to do with paranormal at all.
She argued in a research paper in January the ‘lanterns’ were actually a phenomenon called earthquake lights.
Earthquake lights have been reported across the world, and are described as ‘balls of light, streamers, and steady glows’ which are visible around the time of an earthquake.
Seismologists are yet to agree a theory for why these lights appear in the first place.
One expert has suggested they are a result of underground gases like methane or radon ignited by static electricity or rock movements.
Hough says this theory makes the most sense when it comes to the Summerville ghost lanterns.
She studied the first reports of the glowing lights in the 1950s and 1960s and found they coincided with three magnitude 3.5 to 4.4 earthquakes that took place only a few kilometres away.
The theory is that even smaller unrecognisable earthquakes have occurred since.
The steel rails of the defunct rail line as well as nearby scrap heaps could be igniting the underground gases.
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As for why sightings of the ghost lights are only on dark and misty nights, Hough said these ignitable gases might be trapped in water droplets before lighting up.
Earthquakes would also explain other paranormal reports such as shaking cars and swinging doors and spooked animals.
The scientist acknowledges her theory is unproven, but it could be tested by measuring gas emissions from the ground in areas where the ‘ghosts’ are seen.
The area was the scene of the infamous 1886 Charleston earthquake, which caused 60 deaths and up to $6million (equivalent to $186.51million in 2023) in damage.
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