Background

On 5 January 1978, in response to a memorandum from the Department of Defense (Appendix 1), the Chief of Naval Research directed the Naval Research Laboratory to form a study team to carry out a short, intensive investigation to determine the causes of a series of startling acoustic events that had disturbed residents of coastal New Jersey and South Carolina.

Significant public response to these events began on 2 December 1977 and continued at intervals to the present (end of February 1978).

To meet the objectives set forth by the tasking memorandum, the Naval Research Laboratory established an Ad Hoc Study Team on 5 January 1978. Members of the team were experts in specific areas drawn from the Laboratory’s various Science and Technology Directorates as well as from military personnel assigned to the Laboratory. The original team membership was as follows:

Additional expert personnel were added to the core Task Force as needed. These individuals included

Below, you will find the declassified document/study that the NRL conducted.

Declassified Document

NRL Investigations of East Coast Acoustics Events, 2 December 1977 – 15 February 1978 [155 Pages, 22.8MB]