Bizarre Earthquake in Northern Illinois Monday Felt By Hundreds

I've followed earthquakes for decades and cannot remember hardly any earthquakes striking this part of Illinois. It was a jolt that was strong enough to be felt by hundreds and has been confirmed by the USGS.

According to the time stamp on the USGS site, this weird north-central Illinois earthquake struck just to the southwest of Aurora, Illinois at approximately 2:53am Monday morning and registered a relatively strong 3.4 magnitude.

This is the current "felt map" shared by the USGS.

While stronger than most quakes in Illinois, it isn't strong enough to do any meaningful damage. I'm going to reach out to the USGS and try to get some more information about why this part of Illinois is suddenly having earthquakes strong enough to feel and will update this story once new information is provided.

UPDATE: All indications are this quake was caused by the Sandwich Fault Zone in northern Illinois.