Sonic booms from a fighter jet over southern New Jersey likely created the ground-shaking tremors felt Thursday along the East Coast, but not an earthquake, said the U.S. Geological Survey.
The ground shaking sparked a flurry of posts on social media from residents trying to figure out what caused the ground to rattle.
"At least nine sonic booms were recorded in the following hour and a half," reported the
U.S. Geological Survey website. "(Boom was) reported from southern New Jersey along the Eastern Seaboard to Long Island, New York."
The USGS said the disturbance was initially created three kilometers north-northeast of Hammonton, New Jersey, and confirmed there was no seismic activity in the area, according to
WABC-TV.
The Pentagon said a U.S. military fighter jet caused the sonic booms, reported
WVIT-TV. The fighter was stationed at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland.
The USGS said sonic booms are caused when an aircraft travels faster than the speed of sound and tried to explain it in a Twitter post.
The sonic booms brought widespread earthquake speculation among Twitter users, some with tongue-in-cheek humor.
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