Hundreds Report Shaking from Rare Great Lakes Earthquake Near Chicago

An earthquake struck at the orange dot in Lake Michigan within the colored concentric circles on this map. Image: USGS

Hundreds have reported to USGS they felt shaking from a rare Great Lakes earthquake which struck not far from Chicago under Lake Michigan this afternoon at 2:38 pm. According to USGS, a magnitude 2.9 earthquake struck from a depth of 5 km north and east of Chicago and Evanston, Illinois and south of the state border with Wisconsin. There were no reports of damage or injuries. USGS says there’s been no earthquake activity within 250 km of today’s earthquake over the last 3 weeks.

USGS says that earthquakes with a magnitude of 2.0 or less are rarely felt or heard by people, but once they exceed 2.0 , more and more people can feel them. While damage is possible with magnitude 3.0 events or greater, significant damage and casualties usually don’t occur until the magnitude of a seismic event rises to a 5.5 or greater rated event.

While the U.S. West Coast is best known for their earthquakes, there is considerable earthquake risk elsewhere in the country. Image: USGS — While the U.S. West Coast is best known for their earthquakes, there is considerable earthquake risk elsewhere in the country. Evem so, earthquake activity is very rare in the Great Lakes. Image: USGS

Earthquakes in the Great Lakes are very rare but do happen from time to time. According to Earthquakes Canada, the Canadian equivalent of the USGS in the United States, the Great Lakes region experiences earthquakes, though they are generally infrequent and rarely exceed a magnitude of 3.5 to 4.5. These tremors are usually caused by the shifting of ancient, buried faults and geological scars—like the Midcontinent Rift—rather than plate tectonic collisions. Because these faults are localized in the middle of a tectonic plate, the energy releases are far less intense than those found on the West Coast, meaning they almost never cause significant damage or tsunamis within the Great Lakes.

While northern Illinois does not sit on a major tectonic plate boundary, small fault lines in the deep bedrock occasionally shift. Chicagoans rarely feel strong shaking, but several minor tremors have made local headlines. In July 2024, a magnitude 3.4 earthquake struck about 60 miles west of Somonauk, rattling windows across the broader Chicago metro area. In November 2023, a magnitude 3.6 earthquake struck near Standard, Illinois, roughly 100 miles southwest of the city, and was felt throughout the city of Chicago then too.

The eastern United States has had a few earthquakes in recent days: yesterday and the day before in Tennessee, on Monday in Virginia, and even eastern Canada over the weekend.