mistpouffer

plural mistpouffers

1. plural normallyAn unexplained sound, like a cannon or a sonic boom, heard in various waterfront communities.

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

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

   2 more examples

   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"[…]

   1896, Nature, volume 53, page 30

   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[…]

   1994, Experimental Musical Instruments, volume 10, page 20