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Ground Vibration Leaves Some South Jersey Residents Shaken Up

By John McDevitt

ATLANTIC COUNTY, N.J. (CBS) - South Jersey residents felt some shaking going on Saturday but there's no indication it was seismic in nature.

Shortly after 11 a.m., Rick said he felt his house in Northfield, Atlantic County tremble.

"I immediately came outside to make sure it wasn't a huge truck or something going down the street and there was none. I went over to a neighbor's house and asked them if they felt the same things and they told me that they did, so I thought it was a little tremor earthquake or something."

Seismologists, however, say there is no indication that there was an earthquake at this time. Derrick Pitts, Chief Astronomer and Planetarium Director for the Franklin Institute, says if it was a quake, perhaps it was a sonic boom.

"It's not an uncommon thing for aircraft's that are going to be traveling at supersonic speeds," he said, "so it's not uncommon for military aircraft and we know there are plenty of military airbases up and down the east coast, so it's entirely possible it could have been a sonic boom."

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