STANDARD, Ill. (AP) — A magnitude 3.6 earthquake rattled northern Illinois and parts of three other states early Wednesday, awakening some residents and spurring reports to 911 about homes shaking, the U.S. Geological Survey and police said. The small earthquake was detected about 4:41 a.m. local time and was centered about sixth-tenths of a mile (1 kilometer) south-southeast of Standard, Illinois, a town that’s about 100 miles (161 kilometers) southwest of downtown Chicago, the federal agency said. The temblor occurred about 2.9 miles (4.6 kilometers) below the Earth’s surface. People living as far away as southern Wisconsin, southeastern Iowa and northwest Indiana reported that they felt the quake, said Jessica Jobe, a research geologist with USGS. She said “weak to moderate” shaking was reported across that region but the USGS had received no reports of damage. While there’s neither a history of large quakes in that area of Illinois, nor a known fault zone in that region, Jobe said “small to moderate earthquakes can occur anywhere and anytime in the Eastern U.S.”
