Residents and office workers in downtown Miami reported buildings shaking after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck near Cuba and Jamaica.
Miami Fire Department ordered the evacuation of the Stephen P Clark Government Centre and many workers were sent home.
People were seen streaming out of high rises along Brickell Avenue including the Bank of America building.
The earthquake was felt across much of South Floride.
Miami's Metrorail and Metromover transit systems remain open.
Structure engineers have responded to buildings that reported seismic activity.
It comes just days before Super Bowl LIV is set to take place at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, 14 miles north of downtown.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said on Twitter that there were no mandatory evacuations and no tsunami warning.
The mayor's video appears to be taken in the city's emergency operations centre, which is operational in advance of the Super Bowl.
Miami PD tweeted that while some buildings were being evacuated, there were no reports of injuries, and no road closures.
The epicentre of the earthquake, which struck at 2.10 pm, was south of Cuba and northwest of Jamaica and at a depth of approximately six miles, according to the US Geological Survey.
Buildings have also been evacuated in Kingston, Jamaica, and footage from the Cayman Islands shows water sloshing out of a swimming pool.
The National Weather Service Tsunami Warning Centre did warn that tsunami waves reaching between one and three feet above tide level were possible, but the threat is said to have now passed.
The coasts of Belize, Cuba, Honduras, Mexico, the Cayman Islands and Jamaica were potentially under threat.
