  We report the discovery of one of the most powerful sunquakes detected to
date, produced by an X1.2-class solar flare in active region 10720 on 2005
January 15. We used helioseismic holography to image the source of seismic
waves emitted into the solar interior from the site of the flare. Acoustic
egression power maps at 3 and 6 mHz with a 2 mHz bandpass reveal a compact
acoustic source strongly correlated with impulsive hard X-ray and
visible-continuum emission along the penumbral neutral line separating the two
major opposing umbrae in the $\delta$-configuration sunspot that predominates
AR10720. The acoustic emission signatures were directly aligned with both hard
X-ray and visible continuum emission that emanated during the flare. The
visible continuum emission is estimated at $2.0 \times 10^{23}$ J,
approximately 500 times the seismic emission of $\sim 4 \times 10^{20}$ J. The
flare of 2005 January 15 exhibits the same close spatial alignment between the
sources of the seismic emission and impulsive visible continuum emission as
previous flares, reinforcing the hypothesis that the acoustic emission may be
driven by heating of the low photosphere. However, it is a major exception in
that there was no signature to indicate the inclusion of protons in the
particle beams thought to supply the energy radiated by the flare. The
continued strong coincidence between the sources of seismic emission and
impulsive visible continuum emission in the case of a proton-deficient
white-light flare lends substantial support to the ``back -- warming''
hypothesis, that the low photosphere is significantly heated by intense Balmer
and Paschen continuum-edge radiation from the overlying chromosphere in
white-light flares.
