Florida is synonymous with hurricanes, and most residents are familiar with the natural disaster that plagues the Sunshine State.

But two recent phenomenon in Venezuela and Colombia may have you wondering: what about earthquakes?

Do earthquakes happen in Florida?

Florida is not usually considered to be a state prone to earthquakes, but minor shocks have happened, and tremors from outside the state have been felt here.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reports that the state has seen only 25 earthquakes since 1900. The most recent one that happened in Florida was a magnitude 1.8 that struck just outside Jay, Florida, in September 2020.

Organizers of the Great SouthEast ShakeOut, a multi-state earthquake drill spanning much of the southeastern United States, list other quakes that struck before 1900 on their website.

There is more seismic activity on the Oriente fault zone, located just off Cuba’s southeast coast. It 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.

Earthquakes most often—but do not always—occur when two tectonic plates move against each other. The boundary between these two is called a fault.

What about the earthquake in Cuba felt in South Florida?

A strong earthquake in the southern Gulf off Cuba was felt in parts of South Florida and the rest of the state in early June.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the 6.1 magnitude quake happened about 65 miles west-northwest of Mantua, on the northwest side of Cuba, just after 2 p.m.

The earthquake was reportedly felt in parts of Miami, Tampa and other areas of Florida.

Multiple buildings in Miami were apparently evacuated due to shaking, including Miami-Dade’s Stephen P. Clark Government Center and the Dadeland Metrorail Station.

William Barnhart, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey, described Monday’s 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 5 or greater that we’re aware of in the entire Gulf.”

No tsunami was created by this earthquake.