A 5.2 earthquake centered in southern Illinois has rocked people awake as far away as Chicago and Ohio.

In Logan County, the quake was felt in parts of Bellefontaine, Huntsville, DeGraff, Quincy, and West Liberty.

People in Cincinnati, Columbus, and as far east as Hocking County reported beds shook and dishes rattled.

The quake around 5:37 a.m. surprised residents unaccustomed to such a large Midwest quake.

It was centered six miles from West Salem, Illinois, about 230 miles south of Chicago.

Dispatcher Lucas Griswold at the county sheriff's office in West Salem says they got several calls about the earthquake but only reports of minor damage.

Griswold says he felt a lot of shaking himself and called it "interesting."

There were no reports of injuries or serious damage.

Dozens of aftershocks followed, including one with a magnitude of 4.6.

The quake is believed to have involved an extension of the New Madrid fault, a network of deep cracks in the earth's surface, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The fault is at the center of the nation's most active seismic zone east of the Rockies, something that's known to Midwest residents -- even if they forget it now and then.

The last severe earthquake in the region was a 5.0 magnitude quake that shook a nearby area in 2002.