BLENHEIM, S.C.-
A minor earthquake awakened residents early Monday in northeastern South Carolina, the second quake to hit the area in several days.
The magnitude 3.6 quake hit at 1:44 a.m. and was centered near Blenheim, said Angel Guttierrez, a geophysical analyst with the National Earthquake Information Center in Denver.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. But authorities got calls from residents who were woken up by their shaking houses, said Roy Allison, director of emergency management for Marlboro County.
“I woke up to it,” Allison said. “We were asleep and then we just felt the house kind of shake and felt a little rumble and figured we had had another one.”
A magnitude 3.5 quake shook the area Friday.
Earthquakes are not common to the area and people were concerned that the two were so close together, Allison said.
“People are starting to pay attention,” Allison said. “You can’t predict these like the hurricanes.”
There were no reports of damage from Friday’s quake but there were reports of windows cracking and dishes rattling.
South Carolina each year has, on average, 10 to 15 earthquakes that register below magnitude 3. An earthquake between 3 and 4 is recorded about once every 18 months.
The most devastating quake on record was a magnitude 7.3 that rumbled near Charleston on Aug. 31, 1886, killing more than 100 people.
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