Small earthquakes are still shaking the ground near South Carolina’s capital city, more than two weeks after a major tremor and outside the window geologists usually expect aftershocks.
Early Tuesday, a 1.7-magnitude earthquake struck east of Elgin, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of Colombia, according to the US Geological Survey. Officials said it was measured at a depth of 3.2 km.
About eight hours later, a 2.0, slightly larger quake struck just a few miles away, officials said.
Those tremors were the 11th and 12th quakes in just a few square miles since December 27, when a 3.3-magnitude earthquake struck Broken glass windows and doors in their frames. The incident, which lasted a few seconds, sounded like a heavy piece of construction equipment or a concrete truck falling off the road. The agency said no significant damage was caused by any of these earthquakes.
Since then, a total of 11 more earthquakes The pass is recorded, ranging from 1.4 to 2.6. No injuries or damages have been reported, although experts have expressed apprehension over the incidents.
Earthquakes occur every year in South Carolina, and sometimes in clusters. According to the South Carolina Emergency Management Division, the state experiences an average of 20 earthquakes annually. Last year, six small earthquakes It occurred more than a week near Jenkinsville, which is about 38 miles (61 kilometers) west of the most recent tremor cluster.
Elgin, a community of less than 2,000 residents near the border of Richland and Kershaw counties, is located along a large fault system that extends from Georgia into the Carolinas and Virginia. However, most earthquakes in South Carolina occur closer to the coast in the Middleton Place-Somerville seismic zone, about 12.4 miles (20 kilometers) northwest of Charleston.
On January 5, as smaller earthquakes continued to hit near Elgin, a 1.4-magnitude earthquake struck the southern region, the state’s only geographic outskirts among recent aftershocks.
But the Charleston area is what traditionally comes to mind when thinking of the South Carolina earthquake. In 1886, that historic coastal city was home to the largest recorded earthquake in the history of the southeastern United States, according to seismological officials.
That quake, which was at least a magnitude 7, killed dozens and destroyed hundreds of buildings. In the days before that, the area experienced a series of minor aftershocks, although it was not known whether the foreskin was necessarily turning into something more destructive until after the major earthquake.
In the current scenario, geologists are viewing the South Carolina sequence as aftershocks from the December 27 3.3-magnitude earthquake, rather than as a part of more severe seismic activity, although the window is longer than traditionally expected. has become longer.
“It certainly has lasted longer than a typical mainshock-aftershock sequence,” College of Charleston geology professor Steven Jaime told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
With no known end in sight, Jaime said the tremors continue. Experts are already accustomed to being amazed by the shocking events.
“It’s not over until it’s over,” Jaime said. “Earthquakes are one of the least estimated natural hazards.”
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Meg Kinnard can be reached here http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP,
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