FAIRFIELD COUNTY, S.C. — Authorities confirm that seismometers picked up a small earthquake in South Carolina on Sunday, not far from Jenkinsville.
The U.S. Geological Survey reports the magnitude of the earthquake was 1.7, and it happened roughly 1.8 miles southeast of Jenkinsville in Fairfield County around 6:45 a.m. on Sunday. Coordinates provided by the agency show a suspected epicenter near the end of Penner Road, which itself runs off of Fire Tower Circle and Highway 215 - an area not far from borders with Richland and Newberry counties.
Only one person reported to the USGS that they felt the earthquake. People rarely feel tremors below magnitudes of 2.3 to 2.5. The quake is a quiet return of seismic activity in the South Carolina Midlands, which has had few earthquakes in 2023 compared to the swarm of dozens of rumbles that hit the Lugoff and Elgin regions of Kershaw County the previous year.
