Was That An Earthquake? Rumbling Strikes South Jersey

SOUTH JERSEY — Was it an earthquake or something else? South Jersey residents flocked to social media Friday afternoon to report that they had felt a sustained shaking that they thought could be attributed to seismic activity.

Those from as far south as Cape May up to Barnegat and west to Gloucester County reported their windows shaking and more around 2 p.m. Friday afternoon.

However, as of 4 p.m., the U.S. Geological Survey did not indicate any seismic activity occurred in New Jersey.

Users reported to VolcanoDiscovery.com that they had experienced an earthquake-like event, but the site is unofficial and nothing is confirmed.

"Lasted a good minute and went from strong to light then back to strong," one user reported.

"My whole house was shaking and creaking, I grabbed my baby and ran to the door because that’s how strong it was for a few seconds I thought my house was going to collapse," another said.

So what could it have been? According to both local weatherman NorEasterNick and an NJ.com report, it could be a sonic boom from an aircraft. Temperature inversion could cause sound waves to carry farther, they said.

"If a sonic boom happens within an inversion, it can be carried for dozens of miles," NorEasterNick said on social media.

The Department of Defense does military testing offshore over the Atlantic Ocean, so supersonic flight testing could be the answer.

There is no way of telling if it was a sonic boom, so South Jerseyans may not have a good answer as to what exactly happened.