A mysterious large-scale boom, powerful enough to rattle homes across much of South Carolina, prompted a rare notice from the U.S. Geological Survey on Thursday evening (the first time the USGS has reported any ‘boom’ anywhere in the US this year).
Just before 5:30 p.m., hundreds of residents reported hearing and feeling a loud explosion-like sound across a wide area of the state. Reports came from communities including Irmo, Sumter, Florence, and several locations in between.
Many residents said the boom was strong enough to shake their homes, with some reporting vibrations that rattled roofs, walls, and windows.
Initially, many suspected an earthquake. However, no earthquake was detected in the area.
Around 7:30 p.m., the U.S. Geological Survey issued a special notice identifying the event as a sonic boom.
The agency noted that its monitoring equipment is not designed to measure sonic booms and assigned the event a magnitude of 0.0.
Meanwhile, both NASA and the American Meteor Society said they were investigating the incident.
The USGS did not identify what caused the boom. Sonic booms typically occur when an object travels faster than the speed of sound, roughly 750 miles per hour at sea level.
Potential causes can include military aircraft, experimental aircraft, or other high-speed objects, though no official explanation has been released.
As of Tuesday night, the source of the boom remained a mystery, leaving many South Carolinians wondering what exactly shook the state.
