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From your description, I'd have to say that it's just an accident and that my previous speculation is wrong. At 8 miles, high explosives going off should sound like a crack or pop; as opposed to the deep rumble you describe.

(This is what I love about FreeRepublic. We get our news first and we almost always get access to eye witnesses. We're back to moose and cheese threads by the time Dan, Peter, and Tom check in!)

We're out of cheese. We'll have to do Moose and Squirrel jokes instead.

"Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat."

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

From your description, I'd have to say that it's just an accident and that my previous speculation is wrong. At 8 miles, high explosives going off should sound like a crack or pop; as opposed to the deep rumble you describe.

I don't want to sound too out there BUT, his description could support a crack or pop as well. In his office, he might not hear a pop but he did hear geese and then a rumble. At least I assume that he heard the geese or why would he have turned to see them. Clearly the geese were making noise (as if startled).

If this was done with explosives, a crack or pop would come first, then the rumble. I don't think the weaker but higher velocity blast wave from initiators or even boosters that far away would carry sound into his office.

After firmly securing my tinfoil hat I note that if it the sound of the rumble took several seconds from the time of hearing the geese that would allow plenty of time for the blast wave of an energetic booster to startle the geese well before the rumble. For instance, a cast nitro booster will send a wave at over 25,000 feet per second (depending on air density) the wave would travel over twenty times faster than the speed of sound. My tinfoil shrouded question is: What startled the geese?