Mild earthquake hits neighborhood in O’Fallon, Illinois

A small earthquake struck a neighborhood in O’Fallon, Illinois early Saturday morning.

The magnitude 2.4 quake struck at 1:50 a.m. Saturday and was centered at the corner of South Walnut Street and Colleen Drive, just west of Thoman Park.

The epicenter was about 300 meters deep.

According to reports from the United States Geological Survey, the earthquake was felt as far away as St. Peters, about 40 miles (64 kilometers).

It is the seventh time in the past 10 years that a magnitude 2.0 or greater earthquake has struck within 30 miles of St. Louis, and the first since late 2022.

The quake struck about a week after a disaster drill in downtown St. Louis, where hundreds of emergency responders and military personnel gathered to prepare for a major earthquake in the New Madrid Seismic Zone.

In 1811 and 1812, three major earthquakes, some of the largest in U.S. history, struck the New Madrid Fault in the Missouri Bootheel.