Append-only living-dossier updates for “Seneca Guns: The Booms Over the Finger Lakes, and the 'Legend' Cooper Made Up”.https://theanomalyledger.com/en-ushttps://theanomalyledger.com/cases/seneca-guns-lake-booms/#update-2https://theanomalyledger.com/cases/seneca-guns-lake-booms/#update-2Two primary records behind the Cornell story. (1) The final report to the New York State Water Resources Institute (Morin & Sparks) gives the numbers: 14 pockmarks and two control sites sampled in September 2025; dissolved methane 0.047–0.102 nmol/mL and chloride 124–143 mg/L, neither higher inside the pockmarks than at the controls. Methane tracked dissolved oxygen and turbidity more than location. The authors say there was no active venting while they sampled, but episodic releases can't be ruled out. The dataset is deposited on Zenodo (7 Apr 2026, files restricted). (2) Cornell registered a seismic network, FDSN code YA (2026–2027), 'Seneca Drums Pilot Project': a small one-year array, modelled on its Cayuga Lake network, to test whether lake-bottom methane explosions leave a seismic signature. The registration describes a plan to start in March 2026; we have not confirmed the array is recording or that any data is public. Still no recorded boom tied to a cause; status stays open. — Sources: Morin, T. & Sparks, J., 'Are the Mysterious Seneca Drums an Unaccounted-for Natural Source of Geologically Formed Methane and Chloride to Seneca Lake?', NYS Water Resources Institute report, Cornell eCommons: https://ecommons.cornell.edu/entities/publication/3010dbee-e70a-4d41-ba5d-b7371a7eace9 · Hassett et al., 'First investigation on Seneca Lake pockmarks as a potential steady source of methane and chloride', Zenodo, 7 Apr 2026: https://zenodo.org/records/19457667 · FDSN network YA (2026–2027), Seneca Drums Pilot Project, Cornell University, doi:10.7914/4gw8-nh20: https://www.fdsn.org/networks/detail/YA_2026/Mon, 19 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTUpdatehttps://theanomalyledger.com/cases/seneca-guns-lake-booms/https://theanomalyledger.com/cases/seneca-guns-lake-booms/For two centuries people around New York's Seneca Lake, and later the Carolina coast, have heard deep booms like distant cannon. The USGS says many booms are human-made and some are tiny, shallow earthquakes. The famous “Seneca legend” about them comes from an 1850 James Fenimore Cooper story written as political satire.Sat, 03 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTPublishedhttps://theanomalyledger.com/cases/seneca-guns-lake-booms/#update-1https://theanomalyledger.com/cases/seneca-guns-lake-booms/#update-1Logged 13 Oct 2026. Researchers from Cornell, SUNY-ESF and the New York State DEC sampled deep water in Seneca Lake in September 2025, inside and outside the lake-bed pockmarks, looking for methane. They found it, but at the same levels inside the pockmarks as elsewhere, so the pockmarks don't appear to leak gas continuously. Cornell's Jed Sparks said the team now suspects episodic releases, with gas building up in the sediment and escaping all at once. The Cornell Chronicle adds that the Drums 'may be' large bubbles bursting at the surface. That's a hypothesis, not a result: no booms have been recorded and matched to gas releases. Isotope work found a mix of biological and fossil methane, so the gas source is still unclear. Next steps were long-term chloride and conductivity sensors on the lake bed, due to be retrieved in May (2026), and possible seismic listening gear in the south end of the lake. We haven't found any published results from either. Status stays open. — Sources: Cornell Chronicle, Holly Hartigan, “The mystery of the Seneca Drums persists,” 15 Dec 2025 (read in full 13 Oct 2026): https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2025/12/mystery-seneca-drums-persistsMon, 15 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTUpdate