USGS: Sonic Boom Felt Across Southern California Mistaken For Earthquake
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — A shudder felt across most of Southern California wasn't an earthquake – it was a sonic boom, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The sonic boom was felt at about 9:20 a.m. Friday across a wide swath of Southern California. And even though it wasn't an earthquake, the USGS created an event page for it that indicated it was felt from Huntington Beach to Thousand Oaks along the coast, and as far inland as Lake Elsinore.
Hey SoCal - if you felt or heard something this morning ~9:20 AM local time that seemed like a quake it may have been a sonic boom - see the event page for more details https://t.co/F1DRFhkt5N and read more on sonic booms here https://t.co/R5kN5LTZ0w.
— USGS Earthquakes (@USGS_Quakes) July 9, 2021
Earthquake expert Dr. Lucy Jones said that seismograms clearly showed the earth did not move – just the air, which suggests the source was a supersonic aircraft over the ocean.
The distribution of people who felt the sonic boom from https://t.co/DMc1xgkJo4
— Dr. Lucy Jones (@DrLucyJones) July 9, 2021
strongly suggests the source was a supersonic aircraft over the ocean. pic.twitter.com/tKTXiYWGlz
It's unclear what aircraft may have caused the sonic boom.