Mysterious orbs of light seen for many decades by residents near Summerville, South Carolina, could finally have an explanation, linking the unusual observations to seismic phenomena.
According to popular legends associated with the South Carolina town, unusual luminous phenomena have long been associated with tales of a ghost said to haunt railroad tracks in the area.
Susan Hough, a U.S. Geological Survey seismologist, now proposes a different idea: that the real source behind Summerville’s ghostly orbs of light could involve what geologists call earthquake lights.
Earthquake lights, appearing as glowing spheres, pillars, or colorful bands of luminosity, have been observed in association with seismic phenomena in several parts of the world, although the exact conditions or mechanism behind their appearances remain undetermined.
Presently, leading theories include the release of underground gases like methane or radon, as well as fault movements that release electrical discharges. However, according to the USGS, “Geophysicists differ on the extent to which they think that individual reports of unusual lighting near the time and epicenter of an earthquake actually represent EQL,” with some scientists maintaining doubts that “any of the reports constitute solid evidence for EQL, whereas others think that at least some reports plausibly correspond to EQL.”
Now, in a recent installment of her column “Earthquake Lites” featured in Seismological Research Letters, Hough has argued that the appearance of shallow faults, railroad tracks, and a tradition involving mysterious lights seen around the area could provide a unique opportunity for further research by scientists on the track of elusive earthquake lights.
In work she has done alongside Roger Bilham at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Hough has worked to understand the seismic conditions that caused a devastating earthquake in 1886 that rocked Charleston, South Carolina, and destroyed large portions of the historic coastal city.
Located just 25 miles northwest of Charleston, Summerville became a large part of Hough and Bilham’s study area, which led her to consider whether some of the stories of “ghost lights” associated with the area might not also be connected to the region’s underlying seismic properties.
“That sparked—so to speak—an idea that had been in the back of my mind, working on Charleston, that I had never really even thought too much about,” Hough recently said. “What about those ghost stories from Summerville?”
Scouring through records involving past occurrences of earthquakes in the region, Hough says the earliest evidence of references to the Summerville Lights begin as early as the 1950s—not surprising, given that only a few years before that, the earliest widespread modern reports of mysterious aerial phenomena begin appearing in American newspapers, following the sighting of a group of unusual objects over Mount Rainer, Washington, by pilot Kenneth Arnold in the summer of 1947.
However, Hough was also found within just a few kilometers of Summerville, where a series of earthquakes between magnitudes 3.5 and 4.4 took place in 1959 and 1960, seemingly coinciding with some of the Summerville Light sightings.
Hough thinks shallow earthquakes could be the underlying cause. These may be releasing gases that, through static electricity or some similar phenomenon, may be igniting naturally and giving rise to ephemeral orbs of light. Under some conditions, Hough thinks the ignition spark might also originate from the steel railroads throughout the area.
If the Summerville phenomenon is an earthquake light, it might be that the shallow earthquakes in the area could have released a water-soluble gas like radon or methane that was then ignited by a spark of static electricity or rock movement, Hough suggested.
“From working in Charleston I know that when old tracks were replaced or repaired, the old tracks weren’t always hauled away,” Hough says. “You find piles of old metal along the tracks.”
While Hough concedes that the railroads in question weren’t in operation at the time of the earthquakes between 1959 and 1960, it still could be that any gases below ground could become trapped in water droplets. This, she suspects, might help explain why some of the Summerville Light sightings are said to occur on misty nights that would be a perfect complement for any appearances of ghostly phenomena.
Although her theory is currently only speculation, Hough feels that one way the hypothesis could be tested might involve using simple gas detectors, which could help seismologists determine if any shallow faults exist near the sighting locations.
“There’s tons of faults in the eastern United States, but the trick is finding out which ones of them are active,” Hough said, adding that Summerville may provide “an example of the recipe for the environments that might generate earthquake lights. And maybe the friendly ghosts are illuminating fault zones in the east.”
Hough recently authored the research article “Haunted Summerville: Ghostly Lights or Earthquake Lights?” which was published in Seismological Research Letters on January 22, 2025.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. He can be reached by email at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow his work at micahhanks.com and on X: @MicahHanks.