Gympie region ‘sonic boom’ revealed to be meteorite crash

An earth-shaking ‘sonic boom’ felt across parts of the Gympie region on Monday night left some residents frightened and others rattled.

Rumours on what caused a loud “sonic boom” heard and felt across the Gympie region on Monday night were put to rest on Tuesday.

Residents across the Mary Valley and parts of the region reported hearing and feeling the sound, including Monkland resident Joyanne Lake who said she heard “a very unusual high pitched loud sound followed by a thunder sort of sound”.

Kybong woman Coral Waters said she heard the boom about 7pm on Monday, and initially mistook it for an explosion nearby.

Residents across the Gympie region felt a “sonic boom” on Monday night, with rumours swirling as to what had caused the loud noise.

“My son was sitting over in a shipping container reading, and (the sound) shook his container,” she said.

“It was one of those sounds that you feel … it was sort of like a real boom.

“I didn’t panic, but I did feel like it was … something really massive,” she said

“It was quite scary.”

But Wappa Falls Astronomical Observatory astronomer Owen Deendick said there was nothing to worry about, and the boom was likely to have been caused by a meteorite or a fireball entering the Earth’s atmosphere and breaking the sound barrier.

“If it’s a ‘bang bang’ that means it’s very close to you, but if it‘s a rumble it means it’s very far away,” he said.

Mr Deendick said while sonic booms were not very common, meteor showers happened all the time.

However, there was no way to exactly predict when a meteorite or a sonic boom was going to occur, and it was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time.