Overview
- A loud, explosion-like boom rattled the South Carolina Midlands around 5:24–5:30 p.m. Thursday, and dozens of residents reported feeling brief shaking while security and hangar cameras captured the sound.
- The U.S. Geological Survey recorded the incident as a “Magnitude 0.0 Sonic Boom” near Saint Andrews and explicitly stated the event was not an earthquake.
- Investigators have not identified a cause, and experts have suggested possibilities that include a supersonic aircraft sonic boom or a meteor or reentry event.
- There were no confirmed injuries or structural damage reported, and monitoring groups such as the American Meteor Society and NASA said they saw no matching fireball detections.
- USGS explained the M0.0 label was assigned manually because standard earthquake magnitude scales measure ground shaking and do not apply to atmospheric shock waves, a distinction that helps explain why sonic booms can be confused with quakes.