By the source: A quick but small earthquake in northern Illinois causes the various bad effects on the city. It sets off car alarms, knocked books off the shelves and jolted scores of people awake at 4 a.m. Wednesday, but otherwise caused no serious damage, officials said.

The United States Geological Survey reported that the earthquake, which had an estimated magnitude of 4.3, was centered near Virgil, about 50 miles northwest of Chicago, at a depth of about three miles. There were no immediate reports of aftershocks.

Sarah Evans, 29, of the northwest Chicago suburb of Elgin, said she was awakened at about 4 a.m. when her house started trembling.Update at 7:58 a.m. ET: CNN says one resident of Belvidere, Ill., about 70 miles northwest of downtown Chicago, reported a foot-long crack in his kitchen wall from the quake.
Update at 8:25 a.m. ET: The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the quake hit around the towns of Sycamore and Virgil, rattling residents out of bed.
An earthquake rattled northern Illinois at 4AM Local Time. The Illinois Earthquake measured 4.3 on the richter scale and was located near Virgil Il and Sycamore Il. The earthquake was felt in southern Wisconsin.

“I popped out of bed,” she said. “I felt extreme shaking. I shook my husband, and said, ‘Oh my God, I think it was an earthquake.’” She said the dogs didn’t bark but it seemed as if everything in her 100-year-old single-family home was shaking, as if a train was roaring by.
The 4.3 magnitude quake, centered near Sycamore, Il, struck around 4 a.m., according the the U.S. Geological Survey’s web site. Sycamore is located about eight miles from DeKalb, Il.

Many Madison residents reported feeling a rumble and hearing dishes shaking. There are no damage reports in the Madison area, according the the police department. Two hundred years ago, an earthquake shook the southern Lake Michigan area and was recorded by the small number of inhabitants who lived in what is now Chicago. Work on Fort Dearborn, constructed among four cabins erected by French fur trappers near the Chicago River, had just started in late 1803. Reports from that era indicate that the earthquake was quite strong and was also felt in Fort Wayne, Indiana, 200 miles away. Scientists estimate that the earthquake had a magnitude of roughly 4.5, slightly stronger than the June 28, 2004, earthquake that occurred about 60 miles west of Chicago in La Salle County.

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