A 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck Monday afternoon off the coast of Cuba, rattling buildings in South Florida and triggering precautionary evacuations across Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The earthquake occurred at approximately 65 miles (105 kilometers) northwest of Mantua, Cuba, at a depth of 16 miles, the agency said.
The USGS said the tremor was the strongest in the region in nearly 150 years. Paul Earle, a USGS seismologist, told Reuters the last earthquake of a similar size within 200 miles of Monday’s quake was a 6.0-magnitude event near San Cristóbal, Cuba in 1880.
No deaths, injuries, or major structural damage were reported by authorities in any of the affected countries. In Florida, where earthquakes are rare, residents described the shaking as startling and unfamiliar.
Britnee Jeffries, a Tampa Bay resident, told local outlet WFLA that the tremor felt “very strong and it was honestly kind of scary.” She added, “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.”
Barbara German, a resident of Ruskin, Florida, told WTVT that she was working upstairs when she felt the shaking. “It was kind of alarming at first because I really didn’t know what it was,” she said.
In St. Petersburg, Bobby Shea described the experience to 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, a Tampa Bay resident working from home, told WFLA she initially thought the shaking was caused by her dog. “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 said. “My whole apartment building was swaying, and since I’m on the third floor, I honestly thought it might collapse.”
In Mexico, authorities implemented precautionary emergency measures in public areas across the states of Yucatán and Quintana Roo, Reuters reported. Evacuations were ordered in Cancún, and the shaking was felt in neighboring cities Playa del Carmen and Tulum.
The U.S. Tsunami Warning Center said Monday that there was “no tsunami danger” for the U.S. east coast, southern coast, or eastern Canada. “Based on earthquake information and historic tsunami records, the earthquake is not expected to generate a tsunami,” the center said.