6.1 magnitude earthquake hits offshore Cuba; tremors felt in Florida

Subscribed with another email? Logout and Login with that one. Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription The View From India Looking at World Affairs from the Indian perspective. First Day First Show News and reviews from the world of cinema and streaming. Today's Cache Your download of the top 5 technology stories of the day. Science For All The weekly newsletter from science writers takes the jargon out of science and puts the fun in! Data Point Decoding the headlines with facts, figures, and numbers THEdge At the cutting edge of education and careers Health Matters Ramya Kannan writes to you on getting to good health, and staying there Gender Agenda Stories from beyond the binary. The Hindu On Books Books of the week, reviews, excerpts, new titles and features. Published - June 09, 2026 07:56 am IST - Havana Employees return to the Federal Judiciary building following an evacuation after a 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Cuba and was felt in the Mexican resort cities of Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum, in Cancun, Mexico, on June 8, 2026. | Photo Credit: Reuters A 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck near western Cuba on Monday (June 8, 2026), shaking buildings in Havana, and its tremors were felt all the way up to Florida. No injuries or damage were immediately reported. The quake struck at a depth of 10 km in waters west of Havana, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Flavia Pupo, a manager at the Pinar del Rio hotel in western Cuba, described how the building shook, sparking panic. "Everyone here is OK," she said over telephone. "The people on the street are a little bit scared." The latest earthquake was felt as far away as Florida. The National Weather Service in Miami said in a tweet that it received several reports of shaking in the southwestern part of the state. A flood of social media posts Monday (June 8, 2026) afternoon indicated that people felt shaking even north of Orlando. Maria Moncayo, who works at a law office in downtown Fort Lauderdale, said she had been quietly working at her desk when she started to feel a vibrating sensation. She compared it to someone doing construction in another part of the building, and it lasted about a minute or so. Ms. Moncayo said she had experienced several earthquakes while living in Ecuador, including a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that left hundreds dead in 2016. But she hadn't experienced one since moving to Florida seven years ago. "Since I moved here, it kind of left my mind, but when I felt my desk moving, I thought it was going to be like Ecuador," Ms. Moncayo said. "It kind of gave me flashbacks, but then I realized that it's not bad, it's just a little one." Miami-Dade County officials announced that they were evacuating several buildings out of an abundance of caution, including the county's main government office building, a 28-story high rise in downtown Miami. Officials also temporarily suspended service for two elevated commuter train services that run through downtown. No injuries or major property damage have been reported. William Barnhart, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey, described Monday's (June 8, 2026) earthquake as extremely rare. It's the largest earthquake ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico with modern instruments, which date back to the 1950s. "It's one of only five or six earthquakes of magnitude five or greater that we're aware of in the entire Gulf." No tsunami was created by this earthquake. Barnhart pointed out that the destructive ocean waves created by earthquakes and other underwater disturbances are more common in the Pacific Ocean, but they can occur in the Atlantic. Western Cuba might experience some strong aftershocks, but they're unlikely to be felt in Florida, Mr. Barnhart said. "There's always a very, very small chance that this could be followed by a larger earthquake and people would feel that," Mr. Barnhart said. "But in Florida, people shouldn't expect to feel very much shaking, if any shaking at all, from any aftershocks that happen.” The Oriente fault zone is located just off Cuba's southeast coast and has unleashed damaging earthquakes in recent centuries, including a 7.7 magnitude quake in January 2020 in open waters that caused damage in Cuba and the Cayman Islands. Copyright© 2026, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. Terms & conditions | Institutional Subscriber Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

6.1 magnitude earthquake hits offshore Cuba; tremors felt in Florida

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6.1 magnitude earthquake hits offshore Cuba; tremors felt in Florida

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