This moderate strike-slip shock measured 5.2 on the moment magnitude scale and had a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong).

It occurred at 04:36:59 local time on April 18 near Bellmont and Mount Carmel, Illinois, within the Wabash Valley seismic zone.

An automated system from the National Earthquake Information Center, for example, sent an initial notification containing magnitude, depth, and location within two and a half minutes of the mainshock.

[7] Close to the epicenter in Mount Carmel, Illinois, a woman was briefly unable to exit her home due to a collapsed porch, and a two-story apartment building was evacuated because of loose and falling bricks.

[8] Just across the Wabash River in Indiana, Unit 4 at the Gibson Generating Station automatically shut down due to its vibration sensors,[9] and in Princeton, a woman was cut when a crystal figurine was knocked from a shelf in her home.

[8] Slightly further away in St. Louis, Missouri, a portion of the South Kingshighway Boulevard viaduct were closed because of loose pieces of concrete, but whether this was debris-related is unknown, and traffic resumed half an hour later.