Strong Earthquakes not Unknown in S.C.

South Carolina Meteorologist John Farley lived in Northern California for several years and has spent a lot of time studying earthquakes.

He says South Carolina could see a powerful earthquake that causes widespread damage.

"Yes, we could," Farley said. "The major earthquake that happened here in the late 1800s happened in Charleston. That was, they estimate, roughly a magnitude seven."

Early Sunday morning, a magnitude 6 earthquake struck Northern California causing damage to structures and sent many to the hospital.

"The way you talk about earthquakes is very much like hurricanes," Farley said. "If one has happened there, it will happen again, and on the same range of size. So that's a situation that we need to be concerned with. And remember the Lake Murray Dam was fortified for that very reason, because we see earthquakes here, not very often, but we do."

Seismologists say that we could roughly see a five, Farley said.

"That Edgefield earthquake remember that we had on Valentine's Day, just a couple months back, that was around a four," Farley said. "So, in Columbia, it would be ten times stronger. So it's a reasonably strong quake, and we would have some damage here. Especially on buildings that are un-reinforced concrete. Buildings that are primarily made of brick. Or structures, anything that's primarily made of concrete that doesn't have any metal going through it. That's the problem."

South Carolina has a lot of older buildings, and a lot of older bridges, and a lot of older infrastructure, Farley said.

"So that when this happens, we just hope that it happens, you know, in the spring or the fall," Farley said. "Not when people need heating or air conditioning, because it will be months, in some cases, before power is restored."

Earthquakes happen without notice.

"The only notice that we get from seismologists is that they can say, in the next, you know, decade or hundred years or something on that order, we will see one," Farley said. "Other than that, they are not very predictable."