Methane clathrate decomposition may explain mysterious Seneca Guns shoreline booms

Evidence

Water is a perfect medium for the effects we have been just discussing: the speed of sound in water is over four times that in air, and the lack of any loose soil or organic matter to muffle the sudden arrival of the small displacement of the water surface ensures that a shock wave will form in the atmosphere above the water. This is the case in the Bay of Bengal and perhaps Lake Seneca and Lake Cayuga, assuming the sound is generated underwater. The term Seneca Guns is also used for the shoreline booms that have been heard as coming from just offshore in North Carolina at least since the 1850s. The question for these booms is the energy source. There is some credibility to the notion that methane clathrates, unstable solid combinations of water and methane known to exist on and beneath the ocean floor, could be the sound source. Warmer water can cause them to spontaneously decompose into gas—an explosion. — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 706

Categorization

• QUESTION: The Seneca Guns mechanism is presented as plausible but unconfirmed — worth chasing the actual energy source question.
• XREF: Connects to sound-generation-in-water themes and the reader’s broader why-do-we-hear question.