An earthquake hit Rock Hill on Friday. Here’s why you may not have felt it this time.
A Rock Hill area earthquake hit on Friday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The earthquake was considerably smaller, but also much closer, than the 5.1 magnitude quake earlier this month about 100 miles away in Sparta, North Carolina, which York County residents felt. The 2.0 magnitude earthquake centered just east of Rock Hill, about five kilometers northeast of Lesslie.
A 2.0 earthquake on the Richter Scale is enough to register, but often not enough movement for people to feel. The earthquake occurred just before 8 a.m. Almost three hours later, the geological survey listed just five local reports of it. An intensity map show very light shaking into the Fort Mill area. The geological survey online map starts with listings of 2.5 earthquakes or higher.
The Lesslie and Catawba areas east of Rock Hill in York County are serviced by the Lesslie Fire and Rescue Department.
Tommy White, Lesslie chief, said emergency officials did not receive any calls for service about the small quake and there were no reports of any damage.
York County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Trent Faris said deputies did not receive any calls about the earthquake.
The earthquake was centered adjacent to the 144,000-acre Catawba Indian Nation reservation.
Elizabeth Harris, tribal spokesperson, said Catawba leaders and tribal emergency management officials were advised of the earthquake and found no damage or problems on the reservation.
“It appears that the earthquake was small enough that it was not even felt by most people here,” Harris said.
Earthquakes aren’t common in the region. According to the geological survey, there have now been four earthquakes centered in York, Lancaster or Chester counties since 1998. The largest was a 3.5 earthquake in April 1998, in the southeast corner of Lancaster County. That earthquake measured five kilometers deep.
Chester County had a 2.0 earthquake in February 2013 and a 2.3 earthquake in April of this year, almost beside each other near the York County line. The 2013 earthquake reached 13.4 kilometers deep. The earthquake this year was less than one kilometer deep.
There have been a half dozen more earthquakes to register just outside the tr-county area, including two near the Great Falls area.
Shaking from earthquakes is a product both of intensity and distance. Which is why the much larger Sparta earthquake was more evident in Rock Hill even than the smaller one here, but would’ve been much more noticeable still the closer someone was to the center of the North Carolina quake.
Geological survey data from the federal agency shows the Columbia area registers the most earthquake activity in the state, though there have been clusters to the east of Lancaster County.
This story was originally published August 21, 2020 at 11:50 AM.
