UNIVERSITY OF UTAH SEISMOLOGY LAB, SALT LAKE CITY, UT

The second person to know something was happening was Geophysics PhD candidate Terrice Young. She saw it on the seismographs at 3:20 pm. Sharp transients, with no lingering S-wave or P-wave signals. Shallow or on the surface. Located west of Utah Lake. Man-made. Did an airliner just crash? She started checking news apps for anything but found nothing. The signals continued, but of lower intensity. Big peak at 3:32. Something was going on out there, but no one was noticing. She opened a browser tab to a road webcam page run by the Utah Department of Transportation, and found the webcam on State Route 68 was obscured by dust. “What the heck was going on?” she puzzled. Her question would be answered at 4:05 when the story hit the local news stations.

At 4:00 sharp the panel lit up.