South Carolina has earthquakes! Since the end of December 2021, Elgin, South Carolina has experienced over 80 earthquakes up to a magnitude of roughly 3.5. They are occurring as part of a “swarm”, where there is no single large earthquake but instead many smaller earthquakes of similar magnitudes.
(Top) Locations of earthquakes in the swarm since December 2021 and (bottom) earthquake magnitude and date
Myself and Zhigang Peng from Georgia Tech, and many students, have since deployed nodal seismometers to better measure the location, frequency, and size of these earthquakes.
Myself and the team at a seismometer.
A seismic node. We installed 86 like this.
There is also a seismometer from the South Carolina Seismic Network very near to the swarm that is constantly recording and transmitting data to us. Take a look at the data feed here: http://eeyore.seis.sc.edu/scsn/junkyard/
We recorded an earthquake on the 30th of October, 2022.
The seismometer recorded the ground moving up and down and side to side as the wave from the earthquake passed by.
The waves from the earthquake were felt at all of the stations in the South Carolina Seismic Network, arriving later at stations that were further away from Elgin. This plot was created by Steve Jaume of the College of Charleston.
After the earthquake many news agencies wanted to know more:
Check back in January of 2023 when we will collect the seismometers and start analysing the data.
Dr. Daniel A Frost 