TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV\/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) – Florida is tied for first place in a positive metric: having the least number of earthquakes anywhere in America, but many Floridians experienced the effects of a rare offshore one Monday. <\/p>\n
Professors said Monday\u2019s quake was the first time one was ever recorded in that spot near Cuba. <\/p>\n
Experts said the worry factor for earthquakes in Florida is low. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to be worried about hurricanes,\u201d Shimon Wdowinski, a Geophysics professor at Florida International University said.<\/p>\n
The good news is, Florida professors said hurricane preps carry over into preparing for what little earthquake risk we have. <\/p>\n
While the 6.1 quake was too far away to cause damage this time, similar magnitude quakes have caused damage in states like Hawaii, which faces far more seismic activity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we should be okay on that front in Florida,\u201d Professor Jochen Braunmiller from the University of South Florida said. \u201cI cannot see having an earthquake in Florida or close to Florida that would cause serious damage.\u201d <\/p>\n
Florida is tied for last in terms of the number of earthquakes we face each year. Tsunami risk also remains low, the professors said, though the risk isn\u2019t zero.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, there\u2019s an early warning system in the Pacific, and I think, now also in the Indian Ocean that detects that. I don\u2019t think there is one in the Atlantic because it\u2019s very seldom that we have tsunamis,\u201d Braunmiller said. <\/p>\n
The professors said, unlike hurricane predictions, technology cannot predict earthquakes the same way. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are looking for small changes, very small changes that happens down at depths of a few miles, several miles underneath the earth\u2019s surface. We don\u2019t have monitoring over there,\u201d Wdowinski said.<\/p>\n
Since this earthquake occurred in such a rare spot, the professors explained how this happened. They said the plate bends like a stick, which bends and bends until it breaks. That break is what people across Florida felt on Monday.<\/p>\n
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