A 4.3 earthquake shook part of West Texas and Northern Chihuahua late Wednesday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The temblor was centered in the state of Chihuahua about 40 miles south of Fort Hancock, Texas, said Aaron Velasco, a seismologist and chairman of the Geology Department at the University of Texas at El Paso.

UTEP has a seismograph that records seismic activity.

Velasco said the earthquake occurred in an area that includes a valley used for agriculture and some mountains.

The earthquake began just before 11 p.m. on Wednesday and emanated from about 6.2 miles deep in the earth. The region of the epicenter is about 84 miles southeast of El Paso.

Velasco said the shaking took place in a region that does not appear to have a history of significant earthquake activity.

"There was a whole sequence of events," he said. "There was a 4.3 and a 4.1 earthquake and six to seven smaller ones. We're going to study this further."