Experts Weigh Sonic Boom South Carolina Heard Across Midlands

Experts spoke Friday about a sonic boom south carolina residents heard across the Midlands on Thursday, after reports spread from Columbia and surrounding counties to Darlington County and Chesterfield County. The United States Geological Survey reported the boom late Thursday evening, but the cause had not been identified in the information made available.

Ashwini Karmarker

Ashwini Karmarker, an assistant professor in the University of South Carolina’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, sat down for an interview about the noise. Dr. Venkat Narayanaswamy, a professor in North Carolina State University’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, also spoke about what may have produced it.

The reports came from a wide area, which made the event harder to pin to one location or one obvious trigger. WIS said it received accounts from across Columbia and surrounding counties, along with Darlington County and Chesterfield County outside the viewing area.

United States Geological Survey

The late-Thursday report from the United States Geological Survey gave the boom a time stamp, but not a cause. That left experts discussing possibilities on Friday without a single identified source to point to, even as the sound reached multiple counties.

For people who heard it, the practical takeaway is limited but specific: the event was logged, it spread beyond one county, and experts did not tie it to a known cause in the available information. The next step is not a public action, but identification of what produced the boom if more information emerges from the agencies or experts involved.