Some St. Petersburg residents spent Monday afternoon wondering whether a large truck had driven past their homes, a construction crew had struck a nearby building or if they had imagined the brief rumbling altogether.
The shaking originated roughly 300 miles away. A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck west of Cuba around 2 p.m. Monday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, making it one of the strongest earthquakes recorded in the Gulf region in decades. While no damage was reported in Florida and no tsunami threat was issued, residents across the state reported feeling the tremor, including many in St. Petersburg.
On the St. Petersburg subreddit, residents described an unusual few seconds of shaking, with one resident in south St. Petersburg describing a computer monitor and chair began vibrating suddenly.
Another resident near Crescent Lake in the Historic Uptown neighborhood wrote on Reddit: “Heard the rumbling in Crescent Lake but I thought it was just a bigass truck passing by outside.”
Others reported feeling the tremor along St. Pete Beach and elsewhere throughout Pinellas County.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake occurred approximately 65 miles west-northwest of Cuba. More than 4,000 people submitted reports to the agency’s “Did You Feel It?” system within hours of the event.
Researchers described the quake as unusual for the Gulf. According to U.S. Geological Survey scientists, it is the largest earthquake recorded within roughly 200 miles of the area since the late 1800s and among the strongest documented in the Gulf region in modern history.
The shaking was felt across much of Florida, prompting building evacuations in parts of Central Florida and causing temporary interruptions to some government operations. Officials throughout the state reported no significant structural damage.
Earthquakes are relatively rare in Florida because the state sits far from major tectonic plate boundaries where most seismic activity occurs.
Even so, large earthquakes occurring elsewhere in the Caribbean can occasionally transmit vibrations through the region’s underlying geology and be felt hundreds of miles away.
Minor aftershocks remain possible over the coming days, though no significant impacts are expected.