Hinterland properties across Guanaba and Canungra have been rocked by a mysterious explosion that has left police, fire crews and the Department of Defence scratching their heads.

Residents have told The Bulletin of a violent shockwave that hit about 8.30pm on Thursday, shattering windows and shaking houses.

The pulse was so strong a demountable building in Coomera Valley Drive shifted on the stumps it was mounted on.

But police have been unable to find any source of an explosion, a seismology expert has ruled out any earth tremor and the Defence Department is adamant there were no explosions at the nearby Canungra army base or supersonic aircraft over southeast Queensland on Thursday night.

Guanaba local John Tuminello said the force of the explosion was huge and he could not believe his two-storey house 'actually vibrated'.

"The house only shook for a split second but it was enough to get the heart going," he said.

"It was just one massive shove, it was amazing.

"There was one huge explosion and then it was all over fairly quickly."

Mr Tuminello said after he felt the shockwave he ran outside to investigate and could see people with torches in the distance looking for the cause of the explosion.

Police officers from Canungra and Nerang stations door-knocked the area yesterday and interviewed residents.

Senior Constable Patrick Lyons of Canungra police said officers were called to investigate the mystery explosion on Thursday night and were out until 11pm before resuming inquiries yesterday morning.

"Unfortunately the mystery continues," he said. "Where and what has caused this is still undetermined at this stage.

"All the people we've spoken to are of the opinion the blast came from somewhere in the west and we haven't had any calls from the other side of the ridge.

"We made contact with the civil aviation authority to see if they had a plane in distress but they had none in the area."

Police investigated the possibility the explosion came from the Woodlands Retreat construction site, which was in the affected area, but were unable to find any evidence of a blast.

Nerang officer in charge Peter Gordon said police investigations had come to a 'dead end'.

"There does appear to have been an explosion in that area," said Inspector Gordon.

"Obviously there has been a degree of concern as this is not something you would expect and people got quite a fright.

"But unless we get specific information, we're none the wiser."

Kristy Terry was at home in Coomera Valley Drive, Guanaba, with her two daughters when the explosion went off, causing one of her children to hide under her bed in fright.

"The whole house shook like crazy, it was very violent," she said. "It's pretty suspect that nobody has reported anything.

"It could have been the military I suppose, something detonated by accident, but they would have reported it."

A spokesman from the seismology research centre in Brisbane said their instruments had not recorded any ground shockwaves, despite dozens of residents reporting hearing a loud noise and vibrations.

"We've had a history of things reported from people in that area that they thought was an earthquake and we've tracked it down to a sonic boom," he said.

A sonic boom is caused when the sound barrier is broken.

Air force jets are the only planes capable of breaking the sound barrier.

The seismology office spokesman said he believed air force pilots were not supposed to exceed the speed of sound over land, but sometimes it happened just before they flew their aircraft offshore from the Amberley Air Force Base.