Event facts
Estimated shaking · MMI VII
Very strong. Difficult to stand. Damage negligible in well-built structures, considerable in poorly-built ones.
MMI is the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale — what people actually feel. This estimate is derived from magnitude alone; real shaking varies with depth, distance and local soil. The official USGS ShakeMap is the authoritative source.
What an M4.8 feels like
Light earthquake. Felt indoors by many, outdoors by a few. Hanging objects swing, dishes rattle, parked cars rock noticeably.
No structural damage expected. May knock light items off shelves at the epicenter.
What a deep depth means
Deep earthquakes (over 300 km) occur within subducting tectonic slabs. They can be felt over very large areas but rarely cause surface damage — energy spreads out by the time it reaches the surface.
Energy released
This earthquake released roughly 9.02e+11 joules of seismic energy — about 14.31 thousandths of a Hiroshima bomb.
Caveat: bomb energy is concentrated at a single point in microseconds; seismic energy radiates outward through Earth's crust over many seconds. The comparison is for relative scale only.