A supersonic aircraft participating in a training exercise is responsible for the “loud rumble” felt and heard by inhabitants of the Atlantic coast on Friday afternoon, according to a military station in Maryland.
Residents of southern Delaware, the Jersey Shore, and other sections of New Jersey reported feeling a tremor for 10 seconds at around 2 p.m. on Friday, and many posted their experiences on social media.
One Facebook user said, “I had to go open the window to check what the hell was happening.”
NAS Patuxent River’s public affairs officer, Patrick Gordon, claimed their planes took a route in the Atlantic called the “Atlantic test track,” which is used by the U.S. military. According to Gordon, the aircraft became supersonic and made a huge noise like thunder upon breaking the sound barrier. A sonic boom is the name for this phenomenon.
The Air Force reports that the speed of sound at sea level is approximately 750 miles per hour.
According to Gordon, their planes can only be followed if they stay very close to land. However, Gordon noted that there are times and places where the sonic boom from a supersonic flight can be clearly heard on the ground.
Residents immediately turned to social media to ask each other if the rumble they felt was an earthquake. On Friday, there were no earthquakes of any magnitude reported by the U.S. Geological Survey, which monitors seismic activity across the country.
According to National Meteorological Service meteorologist Alex Staarmann, the noise and tremors couldn’t have been caused by any other local weather phenomenon.
Report of a 2021 earthquake
An explosion at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, a U.S. Army facility in Maryland, was blamed by scientists for the loud boom and shaking felt by hundreds of people in New Castle County in August 2021. Since a 2.1-magnitude earthquake with an epicenter near Clarksville, Maryland, had already been detected that day, scientists from the Delaware Geological Survey initially speculated that the sounds and shaking were caused by an earthquake. When news of the explosion at the Army base finally spread, the noise and shaking were quickly traced back to the base.
