If you felt the ground shake in Cayce at about 3:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17, you weren’t imagining things, and it wasn’t the result of work being done at the local quarry.

The U.S. Geological Survey reports that an earthquake with a magnitude of 1.9 originated from the city at 3:35 p.m. local time at a depth of five kilometers (about 3.1 miles). The center of the quake, per a USGS map, was off Dreher Road near the Norfolk Southern rail line and Huckabee Road.

Feeling earthquakes hasn’t been uncommon in the Cayce/West Columbia area of late, though most of them originate from another part of the Midlands. Per the latest earthquake map from the state Department of Natural Resources' Geological Survey, more than 60 earthquakes centered in Kershaw County have occurred in the last year.

“We have experienced more than our fair share of low-magnitude earthquakes this year,” Director Kim Stenson is quoted in a release from October announcing the launch of Earthquake.SC, a site to help residents understand the fundamentals of earthquakes and how to prepare for them. “None of them have been large enough to cause any damage, but we encourage everyone to be prepared for a major earthquake; however unlikely the possibility may be.”

According to the DNR map, there hasn’t been another earthquake centered in Lexington County in the last year, and the only two earthquakes centered in the county since 2006 occurred in 2021 near Batesburg-Leesville with magnitudes of 2.57 and 1.99. The Richland County vicinity of Irmo has also seen two earthquakes since 2006, including a magnitude-2.16 quake in 2019 and a magnitude-2 quake in 2012.