Loud ‘booms,’ shaking homes felt in Myrtle Beach area. Was it an earthquake?
Residents reported hearing a loud “boom” and feeling their homes shake in the Myrtle Beach area over the weekend.
The loud noise reportedly shook the Grand Strand on Saturday night, leading area residents to post their questions and speculations about the incident online. Reports surfaced from throughout the area, including Socastee, Longs and North Myrtle Beach, according to online posts.
Some commenters guessed that the blast was the result of Horry County bomb squad training, but Horry County officials had nothing to report about the noise or the shaking.
When asked about what caused the sound, Horry County spokesperson Thomas Bell told The Sun News in an email that the Horry County Police Department had no reports that explain it.
Some residents speculated online that the noise could have come from Tannerite, a type of explosive used for rifle practice that produces a loud sound. However, others claimed that the sound was far too loud and widely heard to have come from Tannerite. Bell did not immediately respond to questions from The Sun News about whether Tannerite could have caused the sound.
The South Carolina Emergency Management Division announced on Monday that a 1.7 magnitude earthquake was recorded further south, near Centerville, over the weekend. However, this quake took place at 11:17 p.m. on Sunday evening, the day after local reports of noise and shaking.
Earthquakes can cause shaking as well as booming sounds, which come from high-frequency vibrations from shallow quakes, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. But a 1.7 magnitude quake is typically too small to be felt, even closer to the epicenter, according to Michigan Technological University’s Earthquake Magnitude Scale.
When asked about whether the weekend quake could have been associated with what Grand Strand residents experienced, the South Carolina Emergency Management Division said they do not have that information.
