Three-second earthquake rattles area

CHICAGO - A brief earthquake struck the Midwest early Monday, rattling windows and awakening sleeping residents from Wisconsin south to Missouri and from southwestern Michigan west to Iowa. No injuries were reported from the quake, which occurred about 1:11 a.m. Brian Lassige, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Colorado, said the quake was magnitude 4.5, and its epicenter was about eight miles northwest of Ottawa in northern Illinois, close to the small village of Troy Grove. The rural area is about 70 miles west of Chicago. Northern Illinois University's Paul Stoddard, an associate professor in the Geology and Environmental Geosciences Department, said the quake was likely not directly caused by either of two local known fau