MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN
A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck in the Caribbean Sea between Jamaica and eastern Cuba on Tuesday, shaking a vast area from Mexico to Florida and beyond, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or heavy damage.
The quake was centered 139 kilometers (86 miles) northwest of Montego Bay, Jamaica, and 140 kilometers (87 miles) west-southwest of Niquero, Cuba, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It hit at 2:10 p.m. (1910 GMT) and the epicenter was a relatively shallow 10 kilometers (6 miles) beneath the surface.
The quake could be felt strongly in Santiago, the largest city in eastern Cuba, said Belkis Guerrero, who works in a Catholic cultural center in the center of Santiago
“We were all sitting and we felt the chairs move,” she said. “We heard the noise of everything moving around.”
She said there was no apparent damage in the heart of the colonial city.
"It felt very strong but it doesn't look like anything happened,'' she told The Associated Press.
It was also felt a little further east at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on the southeastern coast of the island. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damages, said J. Overton, a spokesman for the installation, which has a total population of about 6,000 people.
Several South Florida buildings were being evacuated as a precation, according to city of Miami and Miami-Dade County officials. No injuries or road closures have been reported.
The quake also hit the Cayman Islands, leaving cracked roads and what appeared to be sewage spilling from cracked mains. There were no immediate reports of deaths, injuries or more severe damage, said Kevin Morales, editor-in-chief of the Cayman Compass newspaper.
The islands see so few earthquakes that newsroom staff were puzzled when it hit, he said.
"'It was just like a big dump truck was rolling past,"' Morales said. “Then it continued and got more intense.”
Dr. Stenette Davis, a psychiatrist at a Cayman Islands hospital, said she had seen manhole covers blown off by the force of the quake, and sewage exploding into the street, but no more serious damage.
Claude Diedrick, 71, who owns a fencing business in Montego Bay, said he was sitting in his vehicle reading when the earth began to sway.
“It felt to me like i was on a bridge and like there were two or three heavy trucks and the bridge was rocking but there were no trucks,” he said.
He said he had seen no damage around his home in northern Jamaica.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the quake could generate waves 1 to 3 feet above normal in Cuba, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, Honduras, Mexico and Belize.
The USGS initially reported the magnitude at 7.3.
Jamaica earthquake: Magnitude 7.7 earthquake strikes off the coast of Jamaica
Steve Almasy, Brandon Miller and Alla Eshchenko,
A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Tuesday about 80 miles from Jamaica, shaking people in the Caribbean and as far away as Miami.
A tsunami of 0.4 feet was recorded in the Cayman Islands at George Town, but no tsunami was observed at Port Royal, Jamaica, or Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.
A tsunami threat alert was lifted Tuesday afternoon, a few hours after the quake.
Alec Pultr, who lives in Ogier, Grand Cayman, said it wasn't the first earthquake he's experienced but it was the biggest "by far."
"We were simply working and things started to sway," he told CNN.
As the swaying and shaking became more violent, most people started to run; the ones who stayed behind got under their desks.
People in Miami, 440 miles from the epicenter, felt shaking.
Miguel Charon was on the 13th floor of a building on Brickell Avenue. He told CNN he felt the walls shake for 30 to 40 seconds. His initial thought was that it must have been caused by a machine of some sort. He said building officials issued an evacuation order and people left the building in a smooth and calm manner.
Jose Borrego, who also works in the Brickell area, said he was in a meeting.
"We felt slight movement of the building, then we got told to evacuate the building," he said. "Once we came outside (we) noticed that there are evacuations every building in the area."
Bank of America building was evacuated due to an emergency. What's going on?! @OfficialJoelFpic.twitter.com/m89qIlbssk
— JB (@JBSavage93) January 28, 2020
The earthquake appears to have been a "strike-slip earthquake," in which tectonic plates slide against each other. This limits the threat of a devastating tsunami, which are more associated with "thrust earthquakes," where a portion of the earth is thrust upward and causes the water to push up and outward, creating the tsunami.
The United States Geological Survey said the earthquake had a preliminary depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles).
The quake hit 125 kilometers (77.6 miles) north-northwest of Lucea in Jamaica.
The earthquake also was felt as far away as Havana. Some people in the Cuban capital were evacuating taller buildings. Cuba's state media reported the earthquake was felt across the island in Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Las Tunas, Cienfuegos, Pinar del Río, Havana and the Isle of Youth.
There are no initial reports of damage or casualties.
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