HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. — Officials say a loud noise heard in a North Carolina town near Durham Thursday was an earthquake.
It happened shortly before noon Thursday. Many Hillsborough residents told WTVD in Raleigh that they heard a loud boom. They said they felt it rumbling inside buildings and also outside. Several said they felt buildings shake.
“We can confirm that it indeed was an earthquake,” the US Geological Survey told WTVD on Friday. “These small earthquakes often do not get picked up by our computer algorithms because they are so small. When we got felt reports, an analyst looked at it but initially thought it was a quarry blast because it is right near a quarry (visible on Google Earth). Re-examining it this morning, though, we confirmed that it was an earthquake.”
Update: The United States Geological Survey (USGS) stated that the loud boom noise heard Thursday in Hillsborough was an earthquake.
— Town of Hillsborough (@HillsboroughGov) October 20, 2023
The small 2.2 magnitude earthquake had a shallow depth of 3 miles. https://t.co/uoumyUAcWS
A preliminary report from the USGS shows the earthquake registered around 11:50 a.m. Thursday at a 2.2 magnitude.
Its epicenter was just under 3 miles southwest of Hillsborough.
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