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BEAUFORT COUNTY, S.C. – South Carolina has experienced a notable uptick in earthquake activity over the past month, with several tremors recorded across the state.
According to experts, while seismic events are not rare in South Carolina, the current frequency is atypical. “We’ve seen a bit more activity than what’s considered normal,” explained Steven Jaumé, Ph.D., an Associate Professor at the College of Charleston who specializes in geophysics, seismology, and earthquake hazards. “In the first two months of the year, we’ve experienced what we’d usually see over an entire year in terms of felt earthquakes.”
State data indicates that at least 10 earthquakes have been documented in the past month alone, with the most significant reaching a magnitude of 3.0 in the Midlands region.
In February, Charleston recorded a 2.91 magnitude quake, a minor event when compared to the historic 1886 earthquake in the city, which registered around 7.0 in magnitude and was felt as far away as Cuba and throughout the southeastern United States, according to Jaumé.
Charleston also recently recorded a 2.91 magnitude earthquake in February. That’s very small compared to the 1886 earthquake in Charleston that was recorded at about a 7.0 magnitude and was felt across the southeast and all the way to Cuba, according to Jaumé.
“That’s actually considered the hot spot for earthquake hazard on the east coast of the U.S.,” said Jaumé. “But then we’ve actually been having a number of swarms of earthquakes in the Midlands and upstate of South Carolina since December 2021.”
There have been well over 100 larger felt events, plus several hundred smaller swarms’ northwest of Columbia in the Elgin area. There were also several hundred reported in 2021 and 2023 in the Lake Greenwood area, and more in the upstate in 2024 and 2025.
“Just basically the past months, we’re having earthquakes under Lake Murray, right to the west of Columbia. As far as I can tell, there’s only been one other earthquake recorded in that location since 2000,” said Jaumé, PhD.
What makes these somewhat significant is they’re not common hotspots for usual earthquake activity. Previous data from the state showed that 70% of all earthquakes occur in the coastal plain, but Jaumé said the upstate and midlands region has outcompeted the area in the last few years.
“Historically, it’s mostly in the Lowcountry. The past few years have been unusual in that respect, that we’re having more earthquakes in the other parts of the state where we don’t see them as nearly as regular,” he said.
But he doesn’t really see it as much of a concern, because the swarms that have been recorded recently haven’t been large enough to do any substantial damage.
Earthquake swarms are kind of a natural part of the earthquake characterization, according to Jaumé, and South Carolina doesn’t have big plate boundaries like the San Andreas fault line which never have little earthquakes, only big ones.
“Except for the earthquakes here near Charleston, none of these seem to be on faults that are large enough to be capable of very large earthquakes,” he said. “There might be some that can get larger than what we’ve seen so far, but we’re not talking about something that would be like the magnitude 7.0 in 1886 that seems to be restricted to this area down here in the Lowcountry.”
Seismologists know that the Charleston area is susceptible to large earthquakes thanks to the discovery of sand boils.
“Where we have these big earthquakes in the Lowcountry, they create something called liquefaction, which is a wet sandy layer a few feet underground that turns to quicksand Sand and water comes erupting out of the ground, leaving behind these things called sand boils,” Jaumé said. “We find older versions, so we know that happened in 1886. We also find older versions from previous earthquakes. So, we can kind of look back through geological time and say these really large ones occur sort of roughly a few hundred years apart.”
The biggest earthquakes are always the rarest, but experts can’t rule them out as a possibility because there is no way of predicting the time, place or size of an earthquake.
Jaumé compared the difference between volcanoes and earthquakes, two naturally occurring events. He said volcanoes have signs that they are going to erupt, which allows for a warning.
“Earthquakes don’t do that,” he said. “So, you see a small earthquake like the ones we’ve been having. I can’t tell you whether that’s going to be by itself, if it’s going to be part of a group which we’re seeing a lot lately, or if it’s a foreshock. Something that would lead to something larger.”
He said that doesn’t mean anyone should be living in fear.
“But also, be aware that earthquakes do happen here. They have the potential to get large enough to do damage,” he said. “I always tell people, if you do feel an earthquake, and if you feel an earthquake and it’s not over really quick but kind of keeps shaking, that’s telling you it’s a large one, then what you want to do is we call this the drop cover and hold-on drill.”
Here is a link to South Carolina Emergency Management Divisions Earthquake Guide, which shows how to drop, cover and hold on.