MOBILE, Ala. - It wasn't an earthquake, but it felt like it to many of you.

What sounded and felt like an intense explosion rocked much of the local area around 2:30 Thursday afternoon, shaking homes and businesses and shaking up a lot of residents.

"I heard a shaking and a rattling,” said Lana Cook, who experienced the boom in her home off Moffet Road. "It was like someone pounding with their fists."

The boom created some scary moments for residents throughout much of the local area, who experienced what sounded and felt like an explosion.

"This was hard, loud and continuous,” Cook added.

Mobile County's Emergency Management Agency says crews were dispatched to check for any type of explosion or industrial accident.

They say they're looking at the incident as most likely a sonic boom whose intensity was amplified by local weather conditions. Chris Norton was at work at a warehouse off Moffett Road when he felt the boom.

“I kind of felt like the walls had expanded,” Norton said. “You could feel the walls and doors sort of blow open. Iit was pretty intense."

For the time being, the exact cause remains unknown. The National Earthquake Information Center in Colorado registered no unusual activity, and officials at Eglin Air Force Base say they had no high-speed flights that would have caused a sonic boom.

No injuries or structural damage was reported after this afternoon's boom.