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 M4.6 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 shallow depth means
Shallow earthquakes (under 70 km) release energy close to the surface, so they tend to be felt more strongly and cause more damage than deeper events of the same magnitude. Most earthquakes humans feel are shallow.
Energy released
This earthquake released roughly 4.78e+11 joules of seismic energy — about 7.58 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.