On 06:46:13 CET on 12 January 1956, a rather unusual earthquake measuring 5.8 on the moment magnitude scale struck just southeast of Budapest under Dunaharaszti at a depth of 15 km.

The majority of the landmass of Hungary are low-lying plains, which have been covered by Holocene fluvial and alluvial sediments with a higher ground water table.

This indicates that Hungary is generally dominated by strike-slip stresses, while slightly rotating and creating dip-slip faults.

[6] As a result of the earthquake, a small 3 cm wide, directed NNE-SSW surface crack was observed in Taksony.

[3] The building damage from this event mostly occurred in Pest County, specifically in Szigetszentmiklós, Taksony and Dunaharaszti.

The overhead power lines of the Soroksár suburban railway malfunctioned relative to the electrical network.