TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – A 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck off the northwestern coast of Cuba Monday afternoon, with shaking felt across Florida from the Panhandle to the Keys.
The United States Geological Survey detected the earthquake at 2 p.m. Eastern time in the southern Gulf. The quake occurred at a depth of about six miles below the Earth’s surface, approximately 525 miles from Tallahassee.
Residents across Leon County reported light shaking around 2:05 to 2:10 p.m. WCTV’s newsroom received multiple phone calls from people who felt the tremors.
National Weather Service confirms shaking
Kelly Godsey, senior service hydrologist for the National Weather Service in Tallahassee, said staff in his office felt the shaking about five minutes after 2 p.m.
“Really just about 5 minutes after two, just kind of a light shaking just as you’re sitting in your chair, just kind of passed, you know, after about 15, 20 seconds,” Godsey said.
Multiple National Weather Service employees reported feeling the tremors in their operations area.
Rare event in the Gulf
The earthquake is one of only six earthquakes of magnitude 5.0 or larger recorded in the Gulf waters since 1970, according to USGS data. The last significant earthquake in the Gulf was a 5.9 magnitude quake in 2006. A 5.6 magnitude earthquake was recorded in 2007.
Reports across the Panhandle and beyond
Data from the USGS indicates reports of shaking came from across the entire Florida Peninsula, the Keys and the Panhandle. Counties reporting tremors included Leon, Taylor, Suwannee and Franklin.
Joe Millender, a Tallahassee resident, was on a Margarita cruise with his family about 20 miles from the earthquake’s epicenter.
“Everything was going well, and all of a sudden the ship started shaking and things falling off the shells, and people kind of grabbing hold of things trying to hold on, and it lasted about 20 seconds, and we thought we had run aground or wrapped something in a propeller,” he said.
Godsey told WCTV that the emergency manager in Franklin County reported that residents on Saint George Island also felt shaking. The more intense shaking was reported in the southern Florida Peninsula and the Keys, closer to the earthquake’s epicenter.
“… We felt it, but of course it was not something that, you know, was significant because again, you’re 525 miles from the epicenter of the quake,” Godsey said.
The shaking was described as light, not strong enough to cause structural damage or move objects off shelves.
FSU seismograph captures earthquake
A seismograph on Florida State University’s campus captured the moment the earthquake rippled through Tallahassee and the Panhandle. The device recorded the earthquake signature, though a complete reading on the intensity was not immediately available.
Seismograph on FSU’s campus captures earthquake(NSF/FSU)
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