Rare Earthquake Jolts Sleepers in Illinois

(Feb. 10) – Residents of northern Illinois were shaken awake early this morning by a mild but highly unusual earthquake that originated some 40 miles from Chicago.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake was only a magnitude 3.8, downgraded from an original estimate of 4.3. In comparison, the catastrophic quake that struck Haiti nearly a month ago was a 7.0.

Although no significant damage or injuries have been reported so far, the quake did rouse sleepers around 4 a.m. and create widespread confusion throughout Chicago's Northwest suburbs.

"I wasn't sure what had happened," Molly Djuric, a trauma nurse from the Chicago suburb of Darien, told AOL News. "I woke up and my windows were rattling. At first I thought it was the wind or a tree hitting my window or a snowplow going by. But then my bed moved."

When Djuric later discovered that an earthquake had occurred, she took to Twitter and Facebook to spread the news, a move echoed by many other residents in the area. For a few minutes, #earthquake and #Illinois appeared as some of the top trending topics on Twitter.

Reports indicate that even some people in the neighboring states of Michigan and Wisconsin felt the effects of the quake. At the epicenter in Kane County, Ill., the 911 emergency response center received some 250 calls from residents wondering what happened in the hour following the rumble, according to one estimate.

Donald H. Bryant, director of the Kane County Office of Emergency Management, said he was at home when the quake struck but immediately sprang into action, reaching out to his community liaisons in the various fire, police and ambulance departments in the county for damage assessment. Fortunately, nobody had anything to report besides curiosity.

"Because the earthquake was mild, all we got were initial questions as to what had taken place, but those have subsided at this point," Bryant told AOL News.

He also said that compared to the two tornadoes that struck the county last year, this event generated more initial concern on the part of the public because it was so unexpected and the area affected was wider.

The last Illinois quake recorded by the USGS occurred in 1984 and affected the state's southern county of Saline, causing structural damage to one house. That area is closer to the center of the New Madrid fault line, the seismic zone stretching across seven Midwestern states, from Illinois to Mississippi. It is responsible for most recorded Midwestern quakes.

Still, despite its relative novelty, some residents were entirely unfazed by the latest rumbling. On Facebook, graduate student Inna Muzkansky chided her fellow residents and the media for "freaking out" over essentially a nonevent.

"Seriously people, a 3.8 is enough to rattle a glass ... if you're lucky," she wrote in a status update.

Even in the town of Pingree Grove, located less than a mile from the quake's epicenter, the reaction was fairly muted.

"Because nobody got hurt and no damage was inflicted, it's basically just a topic of conversation now around the town," observed Pingree Grove Police Chief Carol Lussky.

For those looking to converse further and share their quake experiences online, CNN has a designated "iReport" contributor page. The USGS is also soliciting responses from people who felt the quake to help improve the agency's tracking data.