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 […]