It’s easy to feel alarmed scrolling through the admittedly witty social media posts of the state Emergency Management Division.

Amid clever posts, such as one advocating the creation of emergency plans with new lyrics to Metallica jam “Enter Sandman” (renamed “Enter Planman”), there are sober updates on hurricane season and flash floods (like the ones that submerged some streets in Columbia under several feet of water this weekend).

More jarring still are the seemingly ceaseless announcements of new earthquakes centered in the Elgin area, quakes that have been felt multiple times in Lexington County.

“Geologists studying the ongoing swarm of earthquakes in Kershaw County believe this may be the longest period of successive earthquake activity in the state’s recorded history,” the division explains in a release. “An earthquake swarm is a sequence of seismic events occurring in a local area within a relatively short period of time.

“This swarm began December 27, 2021, with a magnitude 3.3 earthquake centered near Elgin, South Carolina. Since then, 47 low-magnitude earthquakes have occurred in the Elgin-Lugoff area, with the strongest being a magnitude 3.6 on June 29. Seismologists believe these low-magnitude quakes are not indicators of larger earthquakes to come.”

The quakes have come rapidly in the past couple weeks.

Between June 26 and July 3, the division recorded 24 earthquakes in the Elgin/Lugoff area. Three of these quakes registered above a magnitude of 3 — there was a 3.4 in the wee hours on June 26 and a 3.5 and a 3.6 during the afternoon and evening on June 29. These were felt, according to social media reactions and the senses of the Chronicle staff, in the West Columbia, Lexington and Irmo areas of our county.

But while there has been a lot of shaking, the Emergency Management Division says there’s no reason to feel shook.

The division specifically responded to one user worried about possible volcanic activity.

“The geologic forces that generated volcanoes in the eastern United States millions of years ago no longer exist,” it posted to Facebook. “Through plate tectonics, the eastern U.S. has been isolated from the global tectonic features (tectonic plate boundaries and hot spots in the mantle), that cause volcanic activity. So new volcanic activity is not possible now or in the near future.”

The division also says that the earthquakes are in no way related to any mining activity or other human cause, reminding citizens that quakes are not unknown to the state. We’ve experienced thousands of earthquakes like the ones felt recently in years past.

The agency advises that this is cause to be prepared but not alarmed.

“We know our state was at the center of major earthquakes in the past. We all need to be prepared for the possibility of a large-scale earthquake, however unlikely the possibility may be,” SCEMD Director Kim Stenson is quoted. “Check your insurance policies, conduct a home hazard hunt and practice Drop, Cover, Hold On. Those are all things you can do right now to make sure you’re prepared for earthquakes.”

Though truly damaging earthquakes are unlikely, the division maintains a “South Carolina Earthquake Guide” that you can consult online at scemd.org/stay-informed/publications/earthquake-guide. Earthquakes can be tracked via the SC Emergency Manager app.

“The epicenter of the largest earthquake ever recorded along the eastern United States seaboard was just outside of Charleston on August 31, 1886,” the division writes. “The 7.3 magnitude quake devastated the region and was felt from Chicago to Cuba. According to a study commissioned by SCEMD, while there is a low probability of one occurring, an earthquake of similar magnitude today would result in tremendous loss of life, severe property damage and extreme economic loss.”

“Other notable earthquakes to occur in South Carolina include a magnitude 4.3 earthquake centered in Union County on January 1, 1913; and a magnitude 4.1 earthquake centered in Edgefield County the night of February 14, 2014.”