South Carolina blasted seven times by earthquake swarm

Residents across parts of the South Carolina Piedmont were jolted overnight Friday after a swarm of small earthquakes rattled the region, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Most of the shaking was centered in Greenwood County, which sits between Columbia and Greenville, just east of the Savannah River.

The USGS reported at least seven measurable earthquakes occurred after midnight on Saturday, with magnitudes ranging from 1.8 to 3.0.

The National Weather Service office in the Greenville-Spartanburg area asked residents on social media whether they felt any of the tremors.

Several people from Greenwood County responded that the jolts were strong enough to wake them up and even knock over small objects, such as photos.

Due to the activity’s shallow nature, loud booms were also reported, which experts have previously said is a result of a quake’s vibrations reaching the surface.

Local authorities did not report any damage associated with the shaking, which is common during weaker intensity events on the Moment Magnitude Scale.

The Palmetto State is considered one of the most seismically active areas along the East Coast.

According to the South Carolina Emergency Management Division, the state typically experiences between 10 and 15 earthquakes each year, with only a handful significant enough to be felt or cause damage.

The state is home to many fault lines, with a majority of the activity occurring in what is known to seismologists as the Middleton Place-Summerville Seismic Zone.

Experts say that because the faults occur inside the North American plate rather than at a plate boundary, most of the shaking is typically limited, but that has not prevented magnitude shaking in excess of 7.0 from impacting the state.

In 1886, Charleston and the surrounding Lowcountry were rocked by what seismologists estimate to have been a 7.0 to a 7.3-magnitude earthquake.

The catastrophic event damaged or destroyed more than 2,000 buildings, toppled church steeples, cracked foundations, and claimed dozens of lives.

Emergency managers say if another similar major earthquake were to strike modern-day South Carolina, the event could have damaging consequences, given the state’s growing population and aging infrastructure.