A South Carolina ghost story could have a very earthly explanation.
Starting in the 1950s, folks in the Summerville, S.C., area began reporting sightings of strange balls of light floating down a remote road near some former railroad tracks. Local lore has it that the eerie illuminations, known as the Summerville Light, are the glow of a lantern carried by a forlorn ghost.
But perhaps earthquakes are the source of this phantom light, and of some other ghostly legends too, geologist Susan Hough proposes January 22 in Seismological Research Letters. Radon, methane or other gases that rise from the ground during quakes could have been ignited by static electricity