Residents around the Delaware beaches reported hearing and feeling a “loud rumble” Friday afternoon, although there were no signs of an earthquake, according to a U.S. Geological Survey map that tracks earthquakes.
Residents said the event lasted around 10 seconds and shook their homes and places of work. It was felt in Southern Delaware, along the Jersey Shore and in other parts of New Jersey around 2 p.m., according to social media posts.
“I had to go open the window to see what the hell was happening,” one Facebook commenter wrote.
Alex Staarmann, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said there were no earthquakes in the area and no other weather phenomenon in the area that would have caused the shaking. Staarmann said it was likely caused by some sort of aircraft or military activity.
Earthquake reported in 2021
In August 2021, scientists attributed a loud boom and shaking felt by hundreds of residents in New Castle County to an explosion at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, a U.S. Army facility in Maryland. Delaware Geological Survey scientists originally said they believed the noise and shaking was an earthquake as a 2.1 magnitude earthquake with an epicenter near Clarksville, Maryland was reported earlier in the day. They later attributed the sound and shaking to the army facility once reports surfaced about the explosion.
The U.S. Geological Survey didn’t report earthquakes of any magnitude in the region Friday.
Contact Brandon Holveck at bholveck@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter @holveck_brandon.
