Did you feel it? Mysterious SoCal shaking not an earthquake, expert says

Monday, November 15, 2021
LONG BEACH, Calif. (KABC) -- A mysterious shaking that was reported by residents in the Long Beach-Orange County area Monday morning was likely a sonic boom and not an earthquake, according to experts.

Residents of the Long Beach and Orange County areas reported feeling a shaking around 8:20 a.m. Monday. Laguna Beach officials confirmed they were aware of "an unconfirmed seismic-like event in the area" at that time.
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A Caltech seismologist tells Eyewitness News that the USGS also received "Did You Feel It?" reports from residents in the area. But their analysis concludes the shaking was likely a sonic boom from a plane flyover.

"Based on our analysis of the waveforms for the Caltech sensors, it appears to be a sonic boom, likely due to a plane flyover," said Caltech seismologist Jennifer Andrews."We definitely see no earthquake activity in our data."

Jolt felt across Southland in July 2021 was a sonic boom
Sonic boom - not earthquake - caused jolt felt widely across SoCal, expert says


NASA describes a sonic boom as "the thunder-like noise a person on the ground hears when an aircraft or other type of aerospace vehicle flies overhead faster than the speed of sound or supersonic."
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The source of Monday's boom has not been identified, but such events are typically associated with powerful military aircraft.

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