Historical seismicity nowhere to be seen

A small earthquake (3.0) hits between Baton Rouge and New Orleans about 7 minutes to 7 p.m. last night.

Problem: it's not far enough up the Mississippi valley to be part of what is considered the New Madrid fault zone. The USGS site shows no fault lines or subduction zones. That doesn't mean they aren't there, just that they aren't known.

Combine the quake with an unusual boom heard from Pascagoula, Ms., to Florida a day or so earlier and you have a deepening mystery.

Combine that with the gas geysers in Oklahoma (where unusually high well pressures are being observed) to the massive underground gas explosion allegedly sparked by a drilling rig in northeast Texas (that left a 250 yard crater between 30 and 60 ft. deep!), and you have enough unusual behavior to tantalize any X-file types.