Related videos:
An earthquake of magnitude 5.3 shook the western region of Cuba on Monday at 1:37 PM local time, according to reports from the National Center for Seismological Research (CENAIS). The epicenter was located 98 km northwest of Mantua, in the province of Pinar del Río, at a depth of 10 km.
The seismologist Enrique Diego Arango Arias reported the event on social media and identified it as a aftershock of the 6.2 magnitude earthquake that shook western Cuba last Monday, June 8. “A perceptible earthquake registering 5.3 in magnitude occurred in the western part of the country at 1:37 PM, an aftershock of the 6.2 magnitude earthquake from last Monday, June 8, located 98 km northwest of Mantua, Pinar del Río,” wrote the specialist.
The main event on June 8, with its epicenter 142 km northwest of Minas de Matahambre in the waters of the Yucatán Channel, surprised the Cuban scientific community itself.
Arango Arias, head of the National Seismological Service, then acknowledged that the earthquake caught Cuban seismologists by surprise: "We would never have expected a 6.2 magnitude earthquake in that location," he noted, explaining that the area corresponds to a stable carbonate platform with no known faults or history of seismic activity of that magnitude.
That earthquake on June 8th was felt with particular intensity in Pinar del Río and Havana, and it was also detected in southern Florida and southeastern Mexico. Residents of Havana described moments of panic, while in Pinar del Río, testimonies spoke of the "biggest scare of my life."
U.S. authorities ruled out the risk of a tsunami following the earthquake on June 8, and no casualties or significant material damage were reported in Cuba or Florida.
The replica on Monday confirms that the seismic sequence in western Cuba remains active exactly one week after the main event.
The western part of the island has historically experienced less seismic activity than the east, where the greatest seismicity of the archipelago is concentrated. The most significant historical event in that area dates back to 1880, with an estimated magnitude of 6.0. The year 2026 has been seismically intense throughout Cuba: in the east, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake shook Guantánamo on March 17 and generated more than 900 aftershocks in 24 hours, while in February, a magnitude 5.6 earthquake caused cracks in 14 homes and in the Imías polyclinic.
The American meteorologist Matt Devitt described the earthquake of June 8 as "the second largest earthquake ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico," highlighting the exceptional nature of the seismic sequence, which now continues with this new aftershock.
Filed under: