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In Summerville, South Carolina, a mysterious light has been seen hovering over old railroad tracks. Legend has it, it’s the glow of a lantern lighting the path of a ghost searching for her decapitated husband.

Now, a seismologist has offered a scientific explanation for the floating orb: earthquakes. Susan Hough at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) published her idea in a research article late last month in Seismological Research Letters.

Hough was studying the area’s seismology, scouring old records with references to the “Summerville Light,” while trying to pinpoint the source of the destructive 1886 earthquake in Charleston. Then, she read a Halloween-themed USGS newsletter on spooky science.

“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,” says Hough in a statement from the Seismological Society of America. “What about those ghost stories from Summerville?”

Hough suggests the town’s paranormal legends actually point to earthquakes. She noticed that many of the local “ghost sightings” coincided with periods of seismic activity.

“People said their cars would shakе violently. Well, that’s an earthquake,” Hough says to Science’s Richard Stone. “They heard noises upstairs, whispers. Or doors would swing. Seismic events we may not perceive as earthquakes fit some of these accounts. And glowing orbs that would hang in the air along a former railroad track. Well, that makes you think earthquake lights.”

Earthquake lights are mysterious phenomena that have been observed around the world, but scientists still don’t have a clear idea of what causes them. Some have proposed that seismic activity deforms minerals in the Earth, creating an electrical charge that can lead air molecules to glow. Another theory is that they’re related to the release of gases like radon or methane, which can ignite when they’re exposed to a spark of static electricity. Hough believes the railroad tracks, in particular, are the key to Summerville’s ghosts.

“Historically, when [rail companies] replaced tracks, they didn’t always haul the old track away. So, you’ve got heaps of steel out there. Sparks might be part of the story,” Hough says to Science. “And maybe the railroads are important for another reason. They may naturally follow fault lines that have carved corridors through the landscape.”

That could explain why so many ghost stories—even beyond Summerville—involve lights over railways, she adds. “When you start looking around, it turns out there’s any number of ghosts wandering around railroad tracks with lanterns looking for severed heads,” says Hough to Jonah Chester at the Post and Courier. “There’s kind of an epidemic of them.”

Recognizing this connection could help scientists find seismic zones that have gone unrecognized so far. Following similar ghost stories in other regions could point to areas with a low level of earthquake activity that had only been noticed through earthquake lights, per the statement.

Earthquakes are “an appealing explanation for these ghost stories,” says Will Levandowski, a geophysicist with the consulting company Tetra Tech who was not involved in the study, to Carolyn Wilke at the New York Times.

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Sara Hashemi | READ MORE

Sara Hashemi is a science writer and fact-checker currently based in New York City. Her work has appeared in Sierra, The Body, Maisonneuve magazine and more.

Filed Under: American South, Chemistry, Earth Science, Earthquakes, Geology, Mysteries, New Research, Trains

Published: Jan. 9, 2025 at 1:45 PM PST|

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCSC) - A newly constructed portion of Berlin G. Myers Parkway creates concerns among some families about connectivity risks.

Joseph Greco has lived in the Tea Farm neighborhood for five years and has four kids. The yards they play in are just across the street from a recent addition to the parkway: an access point for pedestrians or cyclists.

“This walkway was put here to get access to the Sawmill Branch Trail. When you get to the top of it, there is no barrier between the sidewalk and the highway itself. There’s no type of enclosure or gate to spot people’s children or pets from walking up here and having direct access to the highway,” Greco said.

Neighbors asked for a self-closing safety gate to be placed in front of the entry spot for the ramp, similar to what you might see at a public pool or park. They also pitched the idea of placing fencing along the sidewalk to divide oncoming traffic from those using the path.

The community has attempted change for the past year, Greco speaking with the department since February of 2024.

In emails provided by Greco, the district bridge engineer described the construction zone and currently inactive highway area as a “poorly controlled access point.” The engineer also mentioned they would effort a conversation on safety protocols, and referenced the gate in question would need to be self-closing, low maintenance, rated for outdoor use and have reliable or smooth operation.

The engineer followed up in October, claiming that the department’s traffic safety staff and local bicyclist and pedestrian groups were not in favor of the gate. Several reasons were listed:

“Getting the response that the inconvenience of a cyclist is more concerning than safety in the community that’s been inconvenienced by the ramp being built here was pretty disheartening,” Greco said.

South Carolina has continuously ranked among the deadliest states for bicyclists and pedestrians since 2020. The department started a program in 2022 to help curb those numbers and create an initiative for bike and pedestrian safety.

Greco continued with saying he is not opposed to the new roadway or its new connection options. He said he does grow fearful of what results the “unprotected” route in his family-centered neighborhood could present.

“As close as I am to it every day, i see the children wandering up this, and pets getting loose and coming up here. Right now there’s small traffic from construction, but once this is an open highway, it’ll be continuous traffic up here,” Greco said.

South Carolina Department of Transporation released the following statement:

“We’re aware of the concern and working with local officials to determine a path forward. I don’t have further details to share at this point.”

SCDOT first introduced the Berlin G. Myers Parkway project in 1990 in pursuit of reducing traffic congestion, improving road safety and providing better road linkage in busier portions of Summerville. The extension of Berlin G. Myers Parkway, or Phase III, creates four lanes of new road, stretching 2.5 miles and costing an estimated $118 million.

Copyright 2025 WCSC. All rights reserved.

Legend has it that if you walk along Old Light Road in Summerville, South Carolina, you might see an eerie glow hovering over an abandoned rail line in the nearby woods. Old-timers will tell you it’s a spectral lantern held by the apparition of a woman searching for her decapitated husband’s head. Susan Hough has proposed a scientific explanation that is far more plausible, however. A seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), she believes the so-called Summerville Light could represent a rare natural phenomenon: earthquake lights.

“I’m sure there are colleagues out there thinking, ‘She’s lost her mind,’” Hough says. But in the January issue of Seismological Research Letters, she recounts how her “flight of fancy” was a byproduct of more traditional fieldwork. In 2023, she and a colleague discovered a kink in the tracks of the South Carolina Railroad pointing to the fault that caused a magnitude 7.3 earthquake in Charleston in 1886. Her sleuthing for that project led to the revelation that small earthquakes in the Summerville area northwest of the city could trigger a seemingly supernatural glow.

Hough chatted with Science about her foray into ghostbusting. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

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A: When I was working in Charleston, I would go to bookstores and libraries and look for local publications, and sometimes find things with snippets of useful information. There were newspaper articles about the Summerville Light. And books like Haunted Summerville. I didn’t give it a lot of thought. Then last October, a USGS newsletter ran a little feature on spooky science. That got me thinking again about the ghost stories. And some of the details just screamed earthquake phenomena.

A: People said their cars would shakе violently. Well, that’s an earthquake. They heard noises upstairs, whispers. Or doors would swing. Seismic events we may not perceive as earthquakes fit some of these accounts. And glowing orbs that would hang in the air along a former railroad track. Well, that makes you think earthquake lights.

A: It turns out they’re all over the place. Lights have been reported in Wilmington and elsewhere in the Carolinas. Maybe those “ghosts” are illuminating shallow active faults. They’re impossible to study, because you can’t catch them in the act. But there are plausible theories that might explain them.

A: There’s a nice review paper by a Japanese scientist, Yuji Enomoto, connecting earthquake lights in some cases to the release of gases like radon or methane. Gases can ignite when they’re exposed to oxygen.

In Summerville, I think it’s the railroad tracks that matter. I’ve crawled around tracks during my fieldwork in South Carolina. Historically, when [rail companies] replaced tracks, they didn’t always haul the old track away. So, you’ve got heaps of steel out there. Sparks might be part of the story. And maybe the railroads are important for another reason. They may naturally follow fault lines that have carved corridors through the landscape. I don’t claim to have a fully mature theory to explain the lights.

A: Some of the younger ones think it’s cool. It’s making science fun.

A: I would love to do some field measurements. I’ve reached out to Steve Jaume, an excellent seismologist at the College of Charleston. I said, “Hey, do you have any students who want to go out ghostbusting?” We’ll see where it goes.