James Fennimore Cooper ping.
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.
Not to be confused with Connecticut’s “Moodus Noises”
When a bubble reaches the surface, it ruptures with enough force to send a shockwave that sounds like cannon fire across the lake.
Bigfoot belches!
the recent slowdown in booms is a piece of welcome relief for light sleepers and the easily startled.
Lake farts.
Drill baby drill😂
There are a couple of lakes in Africa that do something like this — harbor pods of gas on their bottoms and then release it all at once. In that case, the gases are poison and have killed hundreds — overnight. All villages have moved away from the lakes in recent years, for good reason.
Methane pockets are not unusual. Ask anyone with a private lake for fishing or whatever. If you don’t stir the water, break up the levels within it, this shitte will happen.
They are lucky the methane didn’t come to the surface and start a forest fire. Imagine trying to explain that.
Locals: “We heard cannons!” Science: “Your lake farted so hard it left craters.”
Lake fact: 4.2 trillion gallons. Lake vibe: one enormous whoopee cushion with subwoofer support.
James Fenimore Cooper: “A deep, hollow report.” Modern translation: the lake dropped the bass and the bass dropped everything else.
Always kinda thought Stacey Abrams had something to do with it.
Finally the real cause of globull warming is found :-)
The geology of the Finger Lakes is interesting: there’s a layer of harder cap rock on the surrounding areas. During the ice ages as the Laurentide glacier moved south, it ran into the Appalachian uplift and started to climb, putting enormous pressure on the cap rock. In some places, it cut through into the softer layer underneath, carving out huge channels. The lake bottoms are glacial sediment backfill that in some areas is about 1,000 feet or more deep. So from the lake surface to bedrock may be more that 1,600 feet, well below current sea level.
If that is their meaning, I will need more proof of the concept.
I don’t believe that a bubble breaking the surface would make such a loud noise.
No matter how large the bubble, there would not be enough pressure to create the sound.
Sure sounds like a possible source of energy to me. Very interesting story.
James Fennimore Cooper ping.
So, is this the last of the Mohiccups?.............
One might think that an eruption of that size would create a wave capable of destructive force to boat docks and shoreline habitations. Either way, “Drill baby drill!” and put that methane to good use.
😁 That was fast!
I suspect that the sound is the water slapping back into the "hole" made as the bubble breaks the surface.
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.
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