SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) – A 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Cuba on Monday afternoon, with residents across Florida reporting they felt the shakes.
People from South Florida to the Suncoast and up to Tallahassee called newsrooms to report feeling the earthquake, which occurred around 2 p.m.
The earthquake was the second strongest ever recorded in the Gulf. The last major Gulf earthquake was in 1959.
The quake occurred about 20 miles deep, just off the coast of Cuba. The U.S. Geological Survey initially reported the magnitude as 6.4, which would have tied the strongest ever recorded in the Gulf, but later downgraded it to 6.1.
There is no tsunami threat to the Gulf Coast. Tsunamis are unlikely in the Gulf because there are no tectonic plates meeting in the region.
ORIGINAL COVERAGE | Strong earthquake off Cuban coast poses no risk to U.S., weather service says
Tsunamis occur when plates slip along fault lines where they meet, transferring water into lower and higher depths and creating waves.
Suncoast residents described confusion and shock at the unfamiliar phenomenon.
“All of a sudden, like, the floor was shaking a little bit,” one resident said. “And I yelled at my son because I’m like, stop jumping around. Like, what are you doing in there? The whole floor is shaking. And he’s like, I’m laying in bed. And then I heard, like, my China cabinet starting to rattle. And I was like, I think this is an earthquake.”
One person on Siesta Key heard glasses clinking in her cupboard.
The National Weather Service said the USGS will continue to monitor the earthquake.
“Intraplate quakes like this one that are not on a known fault line,” a National Weather Service representative said. “Those can be a little bit different than those that are actually on fault lines.”
The earthquake occurred on the North American plate, which stretches through the Gulf and into much of the western Atlantic. The Caribbean plate, where earthquakes are more common in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and eastern Cuba, is smaller and separate.
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