Posted on 06/03/2026 5:51:50 AM PDT by Pontiac
But the deepest of the Finger Lakes hides secrets down below. Many have heard what can only be described as cannon shots coming out of nowhere. Known as “Seneca guns” or “Seneca drums,” the phenomenon was thought by the local Seneca Tribe to be the bellowing shouts of Manitou, the Great Spirit, when he was angry. Later, European settlers thought they were hearing ghosts of Seneca warriors still fighting for their land as the ground turned red with blood. It also inspired James Fenimore Cooper to write his short story The Lake Gun, in which he observes: “A sound resembling the explosion of a heavy piece of artillery, that can be accounted for by none of the known laws of nature. The report is deep, hollow, distant, and imposing. The lake seems to be speaking to the surrounding hills, which send back the echoes of its voice in accurate reply.”
Researcher Tim Morin, of SUNY ESF (Environmental Science and Forestry) in Syracuse, New York, had another idea: that there could be a physical explanation for it. As early as the 19th century, scientists were theorizing that the mysterious booms could be explosions of gas trapped in the lakebed. Geologist Herman Fairchild proposed the same thing in 1934 when he stated that “the explanation is bubbles of natural gas escaping from a layer of sandstone deep in the earth and coming up through the waters of the lake, where they burst with a booming sound.” In 1971, geoscientist William F. Ahrnsbrak said it was “conceivable” that methane bubbles were bursting through the mud.
Researcher Tim Morin, of SUNY ESF (Environmental Science and Forestry) in Syracuse, New York, had another idea: that there could be a physical explanation for it. As early as the 19th century, scientists were theorizing that the mysterious booms could be explosions of gas trapped in the lakebed. Geologist Herman Fairchild proposed the same thing in 1934 when he stated that “the explanation is bubbles of natural gas escaping from a layer of sandstone deep in the earth and coming up through the waters of the lake, where they burst with a booming sound.” In 1971, geoscientist William F. Ahrnsbrak said it was “conceivable” that methane bubbles were bursting through the mud.
Morin and his research team from SUNY ESF and Cornell University had initially set out on another mission. While using sonar to survey the lake’s fabled shipwrecks, they found the lakebed was pockmarked with 144 huge craters, each around 30 feet deep and 400 feet wide. They sampled lake water and material from deep pockets of sediment in the darkest reaches of the lake. These samples finally gave away Seneca Lake’s secret. In the lab, Morin found traces of methane and other gases that occur beneath the lake, proving what Fairchild and Ahrnsbrak had predicted earlier without advanced enough equipment to investigate.
The booms were not aliens or cryptids or phantom battles, but monstrous bubbles of methane that would erupt from under the lakebed after years of pressure buildup, leaving craters behind. When a bubble reaches the surface, it ruptures with enough force to send a shockwave that sounds like cannon fire across the lake. That was the ghostly firing that had echoed through many restless nights. The lake’s immense volume also has something to do with literally turning up the volume. Because it holds about 4.2 trillion gallons of water and is up to 618 feet deep in some places, with a lakebed that reaches 200 feet below sea level, it acts as an amplifier for the infamous booms.
Seneca Lake formed from an ancient glacier that melted after the last Ice Age. For scientists, it’s an example that shows just how much gas might be lurking under similar lakes, and it can be usefully compared to other similar “lake gun” phenomena across the planet. Some even belch out amounts of methane that could be potentially lethal. But Seneca Lake’s cannons aren’t a deadly threat of that kind, and the recent slowdown in booms is a piece of welcome relief for light sleepers and the easily startled.
Down side A very large eruption coild be deadly esp if someone is on a boat near by, kill them with the gas or sink the boat 🤔
I have seen reports of an African lake that had such an erruption of methane.
They found the village with everyone and every animal dead.
That might happen with Seneca Lake.
People have homes right on the lake and the mountains rise rapidly as you move away from the water’s edge.
A large enough bubble could rapidly displace the oxygen near the surface of the lake and kill thousands in the summer when all of those summer homes are occupied.
Hobart and William Smith Colleges sit right at the Northern end. If it happened while school was in session the count of the dead could be huge.
Albany will soon be drawing up legislation to stop these illegal and unauthorized releases of “fossil fuels” into the atmosphere that Hochul will immediately sign into law.
It’s a fart. Trust me.
“So, is this the last of the Mohiccups?.............”
Shame on you...LOL!
(chortle)
I’m amazed the area’s tourist traps aren’t selling tee shirts with that on it...
😎............................
https://www.fingerlakesmuseum.org/seneca-lake/
Per the above...
‘The word “Seneca” is derived from the Native American name “Assiniki,” which means “place of stone” or “stony place.”’
An appropriate name for the flatulent Finger Lake.
Time to dump charcoal tablets into the lake.
I saw what you did up there last summer. 8<)
I guess that kind of makes sense.
But if is my impression that the fluid that is water does not behave that way as does air.
A bubble breaking the surface of water is a change of one medium to another.
The gas breaking through the surface is breaking a two dimensional interface. When the gas is released in to the air the water fills the void from 180 degrees.
Where an explosion in midair is a three dimensional bubble and the void is being filled from 360 degrees.
With a bubble breaking the surface in water there will be a wave that meets at the center but I don't believe it will be enough to make a huge noise unless the bubble was several miles wide.
The lakes you’re thinking of release CO2, not methane. Hugs the ground and suffocates quickly.
There would be no light.
A lot of this happens around the world.
“Methane ice—properly called methane clathrate or methane hydrate—is a solid, ice-like substance where methane gas is trapped inside a crystalline cage of water molecules. It forms under the extreme cold and high-pressure conditions found in deep ocean sediments and Arctic permafrost. Often nicknamed “fire ice,” it burns when lit as the trapped gas is released.”
“Ocean Floor: Vast deposits exist in ocean sediments along continental margins, typically at depths greater than 300 meters where temperatures are near freezing. Because of the high compression, a single volume of this “ice” can release up to 164 times its volume of regular natural gas at normal surface conditions.”
Obvious sarcasm but I totally believe that they would do just that.
I was surprised to see how clear Seneca lake was when I was there in 1999.
This is the first thing I have thought of. That these large methane bubbles would sink any surface ship that happens to be passing.
The ship would be down to the bottom before they even knew what was happening.
FYI, this is also been theorized as to the cause of ship and airplane losses over the Bermuda Triangle. Huge methane bubbles from under the ocean come up to the surface and sink passing ships or cause aircraft to lose lift. Then down they go to Davey Jones Locker.
Very interesting story. Told with the most uninteresting and banal writing.
Here is a little fun fact:
Hunter Biden has a tattoo of the Finger Lakes on his back.
According to Google AI:
“Yes, Hunter Biden has a large tattoo of New York’s Finger Lakes region across his back. He got the ink in honor of his mother, Neilia Hunter Biden, who grew up in the Skaneateles area—one of the lakes in the region”
I took my PADI-Scuba open water dive in Skaneateles Lake.
It is just to the west of Syracuse. Where I went to college.
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