Series of earthquakes in South Carolina puzzle geologists | WFAE 90.7

A series of small earthquakes has been rumbling under South Carolina’s Midlands for the past two weeks, and geologists are at a loss. The state had never experienced such a series of small earthquakes before.

WFAE’s Nick de la Canal spoke with some of these scientists and joined WFAE’s Gwendolyn Glenn to talk about what’s happening.

Gwendolyn Glenn: Nick, can you catch us up first and show us the speed.

Nick de la Canal: Absolutely. This started on December 27th. It was the Monday after Christmas, and at about 2:00 p.m., a 3.3-magnitude earthquake struck about 30 miles northeast of Colombia. Thousands of people felt the shaking across the state, even as far north as Rock Hill, which borders North and South Carolina. The earthquake wasn’t strong enough to cause any major damage that we know of, but it sure would have shaken the ornaments on some Christmas trees.

Now it appears that the smaller earthquakes that followed were aftershocks, but what is unusual is their number and that they lasted so long. There have been nine so far, and the most recent was a 2.6 on Wednesday, which is kind of baffling for Stephen Jaume, an assistant professor of geology at the College of Charleston.

STEVEN JAUME’: This is probably one of the longest running aftershock chains for a very small main shock. As I expected a few days, no more than a week.

Glenn: So Nick, do geologists have any idea why aftershocks have lasted so long?

De la Canal: I asked, you know, and there doesn’t seem to be a good answer at the moment. I spoke a little with Susan Hough of the US Geological Survey in Pasadena. These constant rumblings are somewhat similar to another phenomenon that seismologists call an earthquake swarm, she said. They can occur because fluids move through the Earth’s crust, causing a series of earthquakes. Here it is.

SS: A swarm typically produces a number of earthquakes with the largest events around the same size, as opposed to a large main shock that is followed by aftershocks.

De la Canal: What is happening in South Carolina does not match the theory of its swarm because the tremors were smaller than the first one. But on the other hand, they act like a swarm.

Hogg: So I’m kind of calm and suspenseful because this is a case where it’s not really clear. Is this a swarm or is this a particularly active aftershock chain?

Glenn: And Nick, while the South Carolina scientists were just scratching their heads, is there any kind of precedent for something like that?

De la Canal: Yes and no. Small earthquakes occur regularly in the Carolinas. And sometimes we get big companies, too.

You might remember in 2020, there was a 5.1-magnitude earthquake that hit the town of Sparta, on the North Carolina-Virginia border. This caused a series of aftershocks that lasted for weeks. It is important to note that a large fault system extends from Georgia through the Carolinas to Virginia. And all of these earthquakes fall along this system.

But smaller earthquakes did not continue to vibrate for that long for an earthquake this small.

A lot of geologists are excited, and as you can hear, they’re busy, says Stephen Jaume at the College of Charleston.

JUM: Lots of emails bouncing back and forth and ‘Hey, did you see this? Did you read that paper? There was some gold mining in that area that day, and there were some detailed maps of the geology based on where the gold was mined.’ So they understand They’re looking for that. Other people are looking at magnetic field data, you know. So we’re investigating.

De la Canal: Now, he says, we may not really know why these aftershocks have been going on for so long, but it could help us learn more about where South Carolina’s fault lines are and what they’re doing, and it might help a country preparing for earthquakes in the future.

JUM: If we have a really good idea of ​​exactly where the fault is, and also from smaller earthquakes how local geology affects how strong the ground shakes in different locations, we can produce detailed maps of seismic hazards.

De la Canal: And that can help guide things like building codes and emergency management plans, he says.

Glenn: And Nick, could these aftershocks — will they continue, or has the Earth stabilized?

De la Canal: Well, unfortunately, there’s no way to know. The thing about these earthquakes is that there is no warning. However, any other aftershocks will likely be on the smaller side, perhaps too small to feel, and researchers will be willing to track those tremors and use that data in their research.

Glenn: This is Nick de la Canale from WFAE. Nick, thank you.

De la Canal: You’re most welcome.

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