mistpouffer

mistpouffer

English

Noun

mistpouffer (plural mistpouffers)

1. (usually in the plural) An unexplained sound, like a cannon or a sonic boom, heard in various waterfront communities.
   • 1896, Nature (volume 53, page 30)

     The mysterious noises, mentioned to me by Mr. Clement Reid, which are heard on Dartmoor and in Scotland near the Highland Fault, are not perhaps exactly comparable with "Mistpouffers" […]

   • 1977, William R. Corliss, Handbook of unusual natural phenomena (page 369)

     Mistpouffers are dull, distant explosive sounds heard around the coast of Europe all the way to Iceland.

   • 1994, Experimental Musical Instruments (volume 10, page 20)

     In addition to detonating minerals, more usual mistpouffer explanations range from great pockets of volatile gasses bubbling up from the sea bed and spontaneously igniting at the surface, to meteors […]