My mom did hear a boom, we live 40 miles from the epicenter. Really interesting

I didn't feel a thing, but then again I'm along the lakeshore. Probably why. Good find and interesting!

We live in the Wauconda are just North east of Sycamore. I think about 25 to 30 miles away. I was already awake. I thought our house was hit by a truck, since we live off of Route 12. Called police, they knew nothing. Got on the USGS site and there it was. Wow!!! I have been following the Yellowstone swarm from the beginning. And I do keep an eye on the New Madrid fault. In fact there was an article about the New Madrid just last week. If I can find it I will post.

WTF?? There's an earthquake in West Chicago where my ex lives, and I'm sitting here in California where we haven't had a substantial quake in a while? The universe seems to be working on my side this morning. Sweet.

I live about 30 miles away - heard a boom.

I lived in N. Cal and this didn't feel like a normal earthquake.

It really felt like an explosion.

I didn't even know there was a fault line near Chicago, I knew about the one near TN, but not a local one. I was trying to find a map for all fault lines but I couldn't find one.

15 miles East of it here. I jumped out of bed and thought the snow had collapsed part of the house..it was loud. It had been snowing all night and I had no idea how deep it was and that was the first thing that came to mind. My bird was going bonkers flapping his wings like crazy. Very bizarre feeling. Something is not right with all these earthquakes happening.

[edit on 10-2-2010 by 2ndFUTURE]

Since when do earthquakes make a loud boom and make you jump out of bed? I've experienced a few out here in CA but my experiences seem very different than what you all are describing.

There is broad agreement in the scientific community that a continuing concern exists for a major destructive earthquake in the New Madrid seismic zone. Many structures in Memphis, Tenn., St. Louis, Mo., and other communities in the central Mississippi River Valley region are vulnerable and at risk from severe ground shaking. This assessment is based on decades of research on New Madrid earthquakes and related phenomena by dozens of Federal, university, State, and consulting earth scientists.

Considerable interest has developed recently from media reports that the New Madrid seismic zone may be shutting down. These reports stem from published research using global positioning system (GPS) instruments with results of geodetic measurements of strain in the Earth’s crust. Because of a lack of measurable strain at the surface in some areas of the seismic zone over the past 14 years, arguments have been advanced that there is no buildup of stress at depth within the New Madrid seismic zone and that the zone may no longer pose a significant hazard.

As part of the consensus-building process used to develop the national seismic hazard maps, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) convened a workshop of experts in 2006 to evaluate the latest findings in earthquake hazards in the Eastern United States. These experts considered the GPS data from New Madrid available at that time that also showed little to no ground movement at the surface. The experts did not find the GPS data to be a convincing reason to lower the assessment of earthquake hazard in the New Madrid region, especially in light of the many other types of data that are used to construct the hazard assessment, several of which are described here.



This was publised in August of 2009.
As of 10 minutes ago a representive from the USGS stated here in the Chicago area, that the quake we just felt is not part of the New Madrid fault. He also stated at this time the USGS probably would not do any study on this quake. They don't seem to think this is anything significant. He also stated that we would have aftershocks but probably nothing anyone would feel.
The're really downplaying this.
I'm still alittle excited and will be keeping a very close eye on what they have to say behind the curtain of the media. I am a student here at the local college. I'll be definetly hanging around the science department in the days to come.

[edit on 10-2-2010 by crappiekat]

Brought down to a 3.8 and centered in Gibert, Il.

I have emailed Mr. Bauer at the Illinois State Geological Survey to get more information regarding the significance or lack their of, of this activity. And also why they say is not part of the New Madrid fault, along with a host of other questions. I will post when I get a reply.

Yes it was on the Wabash fault line.
I did recieve an e-mail back from Mr. Bauer, and he did confirm that. He really didn't give me any answers that I didn't know already. He is very busy at this time and will try to get back to me to answer my questions in more detail.
This is the first time that I have experienced an earthquake and it was nothing like I imagined. It felt like a boom as someone else decribed. Again we thought our house had been hit by something. Then we thought it was a natural gas explosion. I thought it would have felt more like a rolling feeling or rumble. I guess it depends on how deep or shallow the quake occurs.

Magnitude 3.8 - ILLINOIS
2010 February 10 09:59:33 UTC
Versión en Español
DetailsSummaryMapsScientific & TechnicalEarthquake Details
Magnitude 3.8
Date-Time Wednesday, February 10, 2010 at 09:59:33 UTC
Wednesday, February 10, 2010 at 03:59:33 AM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 42.053°N, 88.412°W
Depth 5 km (3.1 miles) set by location program
Region ILLINOIS
Distances 2 km (1 miles) SSE (168°) from Pingree Grove, IL
6 km (4 miles) SW (215°) from Gilberts, IL
9 km (6 miles) WSW (243°) from Sleepy Hollow, IL
10 km (6 miles) W (279°) from Elgin, IL
34 km (21 miles) NNW (344°) from Aurora, IL
65 km (40 miles) WNW (292°) from Chicago, IL

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 7.3 km (4.5 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters NST= 16, Nph= 16, Dmin=179.1 km, Rmss=0.54 sec, Gp=104°,
M-type=regional moment magnitude (Mw), Version=8
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)


Event ID us2010snay

I am about half an hour away from the epicenter and I heard the boom and felt a light shaking, too. My house is old and I have a 14 lb. cat and a 12 pound dog and it felt like it does when the animals get to chasing around after each other. My monitor shook a bit, but that was it. My husband and daughter both slept through it. I didn't even think to do a search or try to find out what it was because I thought it was my pets or a train or snow falling onto the roof.

I know animals are supposed to be sensitive to earthquakes, but when I felt the shaking, I looked (my very first thought being that they were running) and both animals were curled up together on the couch sound asleep. Neither one of them even woke up. I think they are broken and I probably shouldn't rely on them to be accurate earthquake predictors in the future.

My more immediate personal concern, though, is for my sister-in-law. She was in Jacmel, Haiti when their earthquake hit and was trapped there for more than a week before we could get her back to the states and her best friend died in that quake. She is still traumatized and fragile from that experience and this was the last thing that she needed to go through just now.

I hope that no one here in the area had any damage and everyone is doing okay.

Take care,
Cindi

My chick said there was a huge boom and then the house shook like jello.We are 15 miles away from the epicenter.She said it sounded like an explosion not an earthquake.I slept through it.