A minor earthquake rattled some eastern Iowans awake early this morning. John Minsch, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado, says the quake did little more than rattle some windows. Reports of the quake being felt came from people in eastern Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Indiana and Michigan. No damage and no injuries are reported. The quake had a magnitude of four-point-five. It hit at 1:11 Central time and was centered near the town of Ottawa in northern Illinois. Minsch says the earthquake “wasn’t a big deal, really” but is being eagerly tracked by the media, given the frequency of quakes in Iowa. He says very few earthquakes occur within Iowa. Most of those that are felt here actually occur within adjacent states, as is the case with today’s incident. Minsch says it’s a toss-up as to whether Iowa may be in for aftershocks, and he says there’s really little we can do to prepare. He says aftershocks are possible but are not guaranteed.
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