An earthquake on Monday off the coast of Cuba, which was that region’s strongest tremor in nearly 150 years, could be felt in Florida and parts of Mexico.
The 6.1-magnitude earthquake, which struck in the afternoon, occurred approximately 65 miles (105km) north-west of Mantua, Cuba, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). The USGS added that the earthquake had a depth of 16 miles.
No injuries, deaths or major property damage were reported. However, residents in Florida reported shaking in an area that is not accustomed to earthquakes.
Britnee Jeffries, a Tampa Bay resident, said to the local news outlet WFLA: “It was very strong and it was honestly kind of scary.
“I wasn’t really worried in a sense that I thought it was here because we don’t get earthquakes here. But at the same time, I was worried because we don’t get them here.”
Similarly, Barbara German, a resident of Ruskin, Florida, told the local news outlet WTVT that she was upstairs in her home working when she felt the tremors. “It was kind of alarming at first because I really didn’t know what it was,” she said.
Meanwhile, the St Petersburg resident Bobby Shea told the same outlet: “I’m in my chair and it started literally going left and right … The metals on my walls kept clamping together and I’m like, ‘Holy smokes, like this is weird. This is a concrete building.’”
Kelsey Pope, another local resident, told WFLA: “I was sitting in my chair working from home when I suddenly felt a distinct shake. At first, I thought it was just my dog Archie moving around, but then I noticed my desk and even the water in my Nespresso machine sloshing back and forth.”
Pope continued: “My whole apartment building was swaying, and since I’m on the third floor, I honestly thought it might collapse. After a couple of minutes, the shaking stopped, and I realized it had been an earthquake.”
Over in Mexico, Reuters reported evacuations across Cancún, while neighboring cities Playa del Carmen and Tulum felt the shakes, too. Authorities across Yucatán and Quintana Roo also implemented precautionary emergency measures across public areas.
Despite the impact, the US Tsunami Warning Center said on Monday that there was “no tsunami danger” for the US east and southern coasts or eastern coastal Canada.
“Based on earthquake information and historic tsunami records, the earthquake is not expected to generate a tsunami,” the center added.
Speaking to Reuters, Paul Earle, a USGS seismologist, noted that the last earthquake of a similar size to occur within 200 miles of Monday’s tremor happened in 1880, a 6.0-magnitude tremor near San Cristóbal, Cuba.
