ELGIN, S.C. — A small rumble on Saturday morning now brings the earthquake count to 71 for the Lugoff and Elgin regions of Kershaw County - a count that began 215 days earlier when a magnitude 3.3 set off a record-breaking swarm for the region.
The Saturday quake happened around 7:40 a.m. with an epicenter just off of Whiting Way and nearby I-20. It measured only a magnitude of 2.1 and was felt by about 26 people according to information provided by the U.S. Geological Survey.
While below the threshold for most people to feel it, the quake is nonetheless significant not for its power but for its inclusion in what may be the longest in the state's recorded history.
And it's worth noting that while many have been extremely weak, the swarm has included multiple earthquakes above magnitude 3.0 which were felt across vast distances - the largest so far being a 3.6.
While experts haven't yet pinpointed the cause, a growing number of scientists studying the swarm are now looking into whether water from the Wateree River has begun to flow into new cracks created by the first earthquake months earlier.
Time, and the possibility of more earthquakes, will ultimately help scientists test the theory further potentially bringing an answer once and for all to the Kershaw quakes.