Officials say gas exploding from Rhode Island beach sand that severely injured a woman has a mysterious natural cause (Experts unconvinced)

[Emily]

Linzie Janis
Monday, July 13, 2015 04:52PM

Col. Steven O'Donnell, of the Rhode Island State Police, said the investigation found no evidence that an explosive device caused the loud boom.

"There appears to be some kind of ground disturbance," said Larry Mouradjian, of the Department of Environmental Management. "There's definitely something that happened there."

Some beach goers said they smelled gas after the explosion, but the gas company says there's no line under the beach. And the U.S. Geological Survey told ABC News there was "no seismic activity in that area."

"You aren't going to see an explosion like this from a geologic source without a seismic record," seismologist Lucy Jones said.

But Danise's family still concerned about beach goers' safety.

"We went back there this morning," Demartino said. "There was no caution tape up, and they're having kids climb the rock walls."..

http://7online.com/news/victim-in-my...ks-out/844894/

BY: Morgan Chalfant Follow @mchalfant16
July 13, 2015 11:27 am
...
Multiple individuals on the beach reported a smell of gas, though a spokesman for National Grid insisted no gas lines lay along that particular beach. Officials allegedly conducted an investigation and found no evidence to suggest any ?public safety concerns.?

http://freebeacon.com/culture/woman-...ach-explosion/

Waterbury woman hurt during beach blast in Narragansett, RI.

Posted: Monday, July 13, 2015 6:56 AM EDT Updated: Monday, July 13, 2015 3:14 PM EDT By Joseph Wenzel IV, News Editor
... Saturday's blast is a sound the victim?s sister Laura Demartino said she will never forget.
"There was a massive bang and I actually seen rocks shift and move and I started screaming to get up, get up,? Demartino said. ?The same time I?m screaming the sand erupted, threw my sister from there like a live cannon face down unconscious, 10 feet away."
...
"After it happened, you saw large gutters of sand separated, you could actually see crevices like an earthquake. We didn't know, we thought it was an earthquake," Demartino said.
An eyewitness photo has surfaced of Danise being carried by first responders on a stretcher. Her sister said she will survive the incident.
"She has a severe concussion,? Demartino said. ?She has two fractured ribs and she's (got) bumps and bruises all over." she had a pound of sand in her ears, her nose."
... The Department of Emergency Management said it is possible the explosion was a natural occurrence.
"We believe there had been an explosion, a small explosion sub surface that literally erupted out of the sand," Larry Mouradjia with the Rhode Island Department of Emergency Management said.

http://www.wfsb.com/story/29531984/w...arragansett-ri

 

[Emily]

Power Cable Found in Sand, but Beach Blast Remains a Mystery
Officials said they might never figure out what happened at Salty Brine State Beach when a woman was launched out of her beach chair.
By Mark Schieldrop (Patch Staff) July 14, 2015
... Theories abound about trapped gas or rotting seaweed causing pressure to build under ground, or some type of fissure deep below resulting in an energy transfer of some kind.
But Jon Boothroyd, a professor at the University of Rhode Island and an expert in coastal geology said that it?s most likely not a geological event.
?I am perplexed that they would move on so quickly to a natural cause,? Boothroyd told the Providence Journal...

http://patch.com/rhode-island/narragansett/power-cable-found-sand-beach-blast-remains-mystery

Cable, jetty being inspected in Rhode Island beach blast On Monday, investigators dug up a power cable, which a state official said was owned by the U.S. Coast Guard, located under the sand near the site of the blast. National Grid, the power company, said there was no indication it was related to the incident.
The cable used to power the navigational light at the end of the jetty, but it is no longer live, said Rayna Maguire, spokeswoman for the Department of Environmental Management. The Coast Guard planned to visit the beach Tuesday to look at it, she said.
Porder, the ecology professor, and University of Rhode Island oceanography professor John King said the blast could have been caused by a buildup of methane underground. King said it's possible decaying seaweed generated the gas.
"If you were to put a cigarette out in the sand, that might actually set it off," King said.
Porder said methane might have built up from organic matter trapped underground when the jetty was constructed.
"You can definitely get an explosion. How you would have that sequence of events on that particular beach on that particular day, I don't know," Porder said.
...
Janet Coit, director of the state body that owns the beach, told WPRO-AM on Monday that the agency is talking to U.S. Geological Survey and the engineers who constructed the jetty in the search for an explanation. The jetty is owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which planned to visit the site Tuesday, Maguire said.

http://www.tidewaterreview.com/news...e-island-beach-blast-20150714,0,1491212.story

According to the sister of the victim who had a clear view of the events, the disturbance started with the jetty rocks then it seemed pressure was blasted out of the sand next to the rocks where her sister was located.

If the jetty is trapping methane, this sounds a bit like the sewer explosion scenario in Indianapolis:

Utility: Failed cable likely caused underground explosion Associated Press Published: June 2, 2015, 4:49 pm Updated: June 3, 2015, 8:25 am

http://wishtv.com/2015/06/02/utility-failed-cable-likely-caused-underground-explosion/

The other theory mentioned in another article I saw is a void collapse - maybe like this:

Impact on Soft Sand: Void Collapse and Jet Formation

http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.198003

Still, if this were strictly mechanical from the dynamics of sand, rocks, waves, void formation/collapse, you would think this would have happened before with all the crowded beaches with jetties there are in the world. The cable is the unique element, though officials say it was not live at the time.

 

[Emily]

By Donita Naylor and Patrick Anderson

Journal Staff Writers Posted Jul. 14, 2015 @ 11:15 pm

NARRAGANSETT, R.I. ? State investigators Tuesday all but ruled out an unused buried electrical cable as the cause of a blast at Salty Brine State Beach Saturday that injured a Connecticut woman.​

The cable, owned by the U.S. Coast Guard, was de-energized in 2007 when solar panels began to power the navigational aids on the jetties around the Harbor of Refuge, state officials said at a news conference at the beach Tuesday afternoon.​

?We believe it is a dead cable,? said Lt. Col. Todd Catlow of the Rhode Island State Police. The possibility of it having been in contact with a power source, however, "has not been ruled out completely."​

http://www.providencejournal.com/article/20150714/NEWS/150719599


From what I have been reading, it is never safe to assume that an abandoned power line is not carrying a charge. There is always a danger that they can be re-energized:

De-energized: Disconnected from all intentional sources of electrical supply by pulling elbows, by opening switches, jumpers or taps, or by other means. De-energized cables and equipment can be electrically charged or energized through various means, such as trapped charge, electromagnetic field induction from other energized cables, backfeed or lighting. De-energizing cables and equipment does not allow workers to enter minimum approach distances unless the workers are insulated, isolated, or the lines and equipment have been properly grounded.
...
Electromagnetic Field Induction (Electromagnetic Coupling): The process that employs both electric and magnetic fields to generate a circulating current between two grounded sites of a cable due to the proximity of an adjacent or nearby energized cable.
...
Underground Voltage Hazards
Potentially hazardous voltage may appear in de-energized underground distribution cables and equipment due to:
? Accidental energization of cables or underground equipment by connecting to an energized source
? A backfeed through a transformer
? A ground fault rise impressed on the system neutral by a cable or equipment failure
? Human error
? Equipment failure

http://incident-prevention.com/ip-a...underground-distribution-cables-and-equipment

 

[Emily]

[h=1]URI Scientists Look For Blast Clues At Salty Brine Beach[/h] By Ambar Espinoza ? 7 hours ago
... Now a team of researchers at the University of Rhode Island specializing in geology, soil science, and geochemistry will take over the scene. They?re going to gather long tubes of beach sand near the site of the blast to see if there?s a chemical explanation. Oceanographer John King is one of the researchers.
?Unfortunately, they?ve sort of dug down four feet, removed the cable, and churned everything up,? said King. ?So whatever chemical gradient might have been there isn?t really there. So we are going to try to take some cores adjacent to what they dug up and try to get an undisturbed profile.?
...
A second hypothesis involves the disconnected cable under the beach. Geochemist Art Spivack said there?s a small probability that seawater could have corroded the steel cable, with the corrosion producing hydrogen gas.
...
Natural environments can behave like batteries, adds Brian Heikes. He explains that weak electrical currents produced by sediments in seawater could travel even through a dead cable. And those currents can also create hydrogen gas...

http://ripr.org/post/uri-scientists-look-blast-clues-salty-brine-beach

 

[Emily]

Salty Brine Beach blast remains a mystery

Posted: Jul 17, 2015 4:17 PM PST Updated: Jul 17, 2015 4:17 PM PST By R.J. Heim, NBC 10 News
... "Monday, we will revisit the issue,” said Larry Mouradjian, who is the Associate Director of Natural Resources at DEM. “We're just going to continue to investigate…There'll be some ground penetrating radar to look for things that might be subterranean that we haven't discovered or are aware of, given the history of hurricanes. So, maybe something is buried. I mean, obviously, we're just going to continue to investigate until we find a reason."
Mouradjian cited “natural causes,” as well as “underground activities,” as possibilities. Another culprit could be an underground cable in the parking lot. He also noted that local scientists are participating in the investigation.

http://www.turnto10.com/story/295762...ains-a-mystery

So maybe that is the cable that re-engerized the cable on the beach that was dug up. Part of that one was carefully wrapped in opaque material before it was taken away by officials.

https://twitter.com/MRandallABC6/sta...98945607675905

https://twitter.com/S_E_Campbell/sta...98840028647425

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">One piece of cable has been wrapped up and bagged. No info from officials yet. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SaltyBrine?src=hash">#SaltyBrine</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ABC6">@ABC6</a> <a href="http://t.co/Z9Kd2y12Vk">pic.twitter.com/Z9Kd2y12Vk</a></p>— Melissa Randall (@MRandallABC6) <a href="https://twitter.com/MRandallABC6/status/620998945607675905">July 14, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Part of the cable taped and wrapped up at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SaltyBrine?src=hash">#SaltyBrine</a> Beach <a href="https://twitter.com/wpri12">@wpri12</a> <a href="http://t.co/HtcZsyZyPj">pic.twitter.com/HtcZsyZyPj</a></p>— Susan Campbell (@S_E_Campbell) <a href="https://twitter.com/S_E_Campbell/status/620998840028647425">July 14, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[Emily]

Hydrogen Gas Blamed for Mystery Rhode Island Beach Blast

July 27, 2015
...

Arthur Spivack, an oceanographer with expertise in geo-chemistry at the oceanography school who worked on finding the cause, said hydrogen combustion is about the simplest chemical reaction there is.
&#147;All you need is hydrogen and oxygen in the right mixture and it can combust,&#148; he said. &#147;Everything we observed is consistent with hydrogen combustion.&#148;
Spivack said scientists tested more than 300 samples of sand last week and found some pockets that had about 10,000 times the expected level of hydrogen.
It takes a very small amount of energy to ignite hydrogen, and even static electricity from hair can do it, Spivack said...

http://www.claimsjournal.com/news/ea.../27/264768.htm

I wish the university investigators had been allowed to examine that piece of cable that was carried away earlier by governments officials. In the photos, you see that the cable is very stiff except for the bent portion that is wrapped up. I've been reading about underwater exploding wire physics and I believe that metals are vaporized when this occurs. That could explain the extremely flaccid area of the cable. It takes a hit of current to cause the phenomena, but the yield is tremendous.

Also, one witness I saw interviewed in a video I watched said the sound produced was very much like a sonic boom. The underwater exploding wire physics is capable of doing that.

Accession Number : AD0777690
Title : An Investigation of the Power Spectrum of Underwater Explosions of Gaseous Hydrogen and Oxygen

Descriptive Note : Master's thesis​

Corporate Author : NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY CA
Personal Author(s) : Harris, Jack R. ; Rigsbee, Clifford M.

Report Date : 1960​

Pagination or Media Count : 71​

Abstract : The report was inspired by the need for investigation of new methods of producing underwater sonic energy for possible use in signaling and detection. Electrolysis of sea water into hydrogen and oxygen and the detonation of this mixture underwater was chosen as the transmitting source since it provides a simple and non-depth limited system usable for shipboard, submarine and airborne platforms. The fundamental source of energy to the transducer is high current, low voltage DC electrical power in magnitudes now available from the three possible platforms. A working unit was made and the pressure vs. time and pressure vs. frequency spectrums analyzed for selected parameter changes of depth, gas volume and mixture ratios.​

Descriptors : *UNDERWATER EXPLOSIONS, *POWER SPECTRA, OXYGEN, ELECTROLYSIS, HYDROPHONES, SEA WATER, DETONATIONS, HYDROGEN, THESES, TRANSDUCERS​

Subject Categories : Explosions

Distribution Statement : APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE​

http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=get...fier=AD0777690
Full text:
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/777690.pdf

I'm no expert, but wouldn't a conventional hydrogen blast have produced flame? So I wonder if the primary source of the shock was an underwater exploding wire, (caused by an accidentally re-energized cable), and the rich pockets of hydrogen were produced as a byproduct.

 

[Emily]

Police Identify Likely Cause of Mysterious Beach Blast
State officials said a gas buildup was caused by a old copper cable.
By Mark Schieldrop (Patch Staff) July 26, 2015
... Spivack said that copper in a salty environment will cause it to corrode rapidly. That corrosive process produces hydrogen, which was apparently trapped in the ground and ignited by an ignition source. Hydrogen combustion is a very simple chemical process, he said, which &#147;would take very little energy to ignite.&#148;
Methane, for example, takes 10 times the energy to ignite as hydrogen. Hydrogen also does not produce a visible flame and it generates much less heat. That explains the mysterious, almost phantom-like descriptions in witness accounts as well as the lack of burns or residue at the blast site. Witnesses reported smelling what was believed to be chemicals and hearing a noise described as a boom or explosion...

http://patch.com/rhode-island/narrag...-officials-say

That's the first report I've seen of anything that unusual. It sounds like plasma or ball lightning. Several officials said the cracks in the sand looked like a lightning strike, but in this case the energy came from the ground. Here's an article from 1996 about ball lightning vs plasma theories. So far, I can't find other accounts of sightings like this after explosions, though.

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/10/sc...of-plasma.html