Some older buildings sustained heavy damage around the city of Oni, where the injury was reported. Many residents of the city remained outdoors for the remainder of the night in fear of strong aftershocks.
The quake struck at 3:41 a.m. local time about 95 miles northwest of the Georgian capital of Tbilisi at a shallow depth of only 3 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Shaking was felt in the capital, but no damage was reported there.
The epicenter was west of Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia region on the slopes of the Caucasus Mountains.
The Caucasus region experiences minor tremors on a regular basis, but Tuesday’s quake was unusually powerful.
The last major quake to strike Georgia was in April 2002 when six people were killed and major damage occurred in older parts of Tbilisi by shaking that registered a magnitude of 6.0