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I’m talking about the apparent seismic disturbance that went BOOM for a second at 17:17:26 Zulu time today. Apparently, the epicenter was 5 klicks WSW of Irmo.
It shook the house in a way that made me think a tree, or at least a large branch, had fallen on the roof. I checked to make sure my wife and son, who were both here, were OK, and ran outside with dread of what I might see.
I saw nothing.
I checked with a neighbor on the phone, and he said he’d received several reports from people in the community, and according to USGS, it was an earthquake. I went to the webpage about the incident, and took advantage of the opportunity to leave a personal report. I objected this was unlike any earthquake that I’ve ever experienced.
I experienced a few earthquakes when I was a kid down in Ecuador. They were fairly routine, but disturbing — and really freaked out the local folks each time, which intensified the sense of alarm. But those were NOTHING like this.
First, I don’t remember a sound of any kind. Just motion. The building would shake. Small items that were stacked up would fall over. Furniture would shake enough that it would start shimmying across the floor. Most of all, it would last for several seconds — maybe five or 10.
This was like a tree falling. Crash, and it was over.
But the authorities say it was an earthquake, and in the absence of evidence of what I thought it was, I have to accept that.
What was your experience, if any?
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Heard and felt it in Forest Acres. Was surprised to learn it was near Irmo. We’ve often felt the bigger ones in Elgin.
I’m in the Irmo area. Today, yes, it was a “boom”. And you are correct also that if felt more like the building shaking rather than the ground shaking. The one on Feb 13 was said to have been located about 2.8 miles SW of Irmo which is, I’m guessing by the feel of it, under my living room. That one sounded to me like an expolosion! Or compared to today, it was a boom plus the sound of lightning crashing. Never before been through quakes like these.
Maybe earthquakes here are just really different from the ones on the Pacific Rim…
I did hear it / feel it out in Blythewood.. kind of an extended rumbling noise for a couple seconds. At first, I thought it was a construction truck driving by.
Experienced an earthquake in Santa Clara, CA twenty years ago. I think it was in the 4 range… TV in hotel was shaking for several seconds, we had to evacuate the building.
In 2023, had a 4.6 in Anchorage, Alaska that sounded like a loud boom as if a car had run into the hotel.. but no tremors.
The kind you felt in Santa Clara was the kind I knew in Guayaquil.
My favorite story was something my Dad experienced, not me.
He was downtown at the barber shop we went to. I enjoyed going there because I liked the way the barbers would put hot shaving cream on me and shave the back of my neck with a straight razor. Made me feel very grown up at ages 9-11.
It was a very narrow shop only about seven or eight feet wide but 50 or 60 deep — just one long row of maybe a dozen or more chairs running from the street entrance way back into the building.
Anyway, Dad was about to get a REAL shave, and was lying back with a damp towel over his face, very relaxed, when the barber chair started shaking back and forth. He said something like “Que pasa?” Then he noticed the shop was VERY quiet. He took the towel off his face and looked around and saw that the shop, which had been jammned, was now empty. He got up and walked to the door with the sheet still wrapped around him. When he got to the door, he saw all the barbers and customers staring at him, marvelling that the crazy gringo who didn’t know what to do in an earthquake was still alive…
An explanation for earthquake “booms:”
https://www.usgs.gov/programs/earthquake-hazards/earthquake-booms-seneca-guns-and-other-sounds