4 small earthquakes rattle southeast Missouri

LILBOURN, Mo. (AP) _ Several people in southeast Missouri felt the earth move early Wednesday after a series of small earthquakes.

The U.S. Geological Survey reports that four quakes of between magnitude 2.6 and magnitude 3.0 started shortly after midnight, all centered near the town of Lilbourn, a New Madrid County town about 215 miles south of St. Louis. A spokeswoman for the New Madrid County Sheriff’s Department says there were no reports of damage or injuries.

Small earthquakes are fairly common in southeast Missouri because of the New Madrid fault, which produced massive earthquakes in 1811 and 1812 that could be felt as far away as New England.

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