Event facts
Estimated shaking · MMI VIII
Severe. Damage considerable in ordinary buildings, including partial collapse. Heavy furniture overturned.
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 M5.5 feels like
Moderate earthquake. Felt by nearly everyone outdoors. Sleeping people awakened. Dishes, windows, doors disturbed; some objects overturned.
Slight damage to weak structures near the epicenter. Well-built buildings unaffected. Localised falling-debris hazard.
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 1.12e+13 joules of seismic energy — about 178.10 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.