3 Popular Travel Destinations Hit With Earthquakes in Under 48 Hours

California, Hawaii, and Florida are all popular vacation destinations.

These three locations boast beautiful weather (most of the time), beaches, scenery, and Disney-related destinations. You can visit Disneyland in California, Disney World in Florida, and Aulani in Hawaii. Unfortunately, all three locations are also common for natural disasters. Recently, disaster struck all three states within 48 hours of each other.

While California and Hawaii are known to experience earthquakes (since they sit on either a large fault or a geologic hot spot), it is not common for Florida to experience them. But all three states felt the effects of earthquakes, starting with Florida on Wednesday night followed by California and Hawaii Friday morning.

The first quake hit just off the coast of Florida, near Cape Canaveral. According to Fox35 news, at 10:48 PM a magnitude 4.0 earthquake hit 101 miles off the coast. According to USGS, the earthquake was very shallow (for an earthquake) at just over 6 miles in depth. People reported feeling “weak” or “light” shaking along the coast from Titusville to Vero Beach. People at Coca Beach and Melbourne, Merritt Island also stated that they could feel the shaking.

The most recent reported earthquake near Florida was on September 3rd, 2020 when a 1.8 magnitude earthquake hit a few miles south of the Florida-Alabama border.

While earthquakes are uncommon in Florida, they are quite common on the West Coast in California. But even though they’re common there, they seem to be happening far more often this year. On Friday, at 1:47 PM a 4.6 magnitude earthquake hit the Los Angeles area, according to NBC News. The quake occurred about 7 miles northwest of Malibu near the coastline. Several aftershocks were then felt with magnitudes up to 3.0. No major damage was reported for the area.

Then, according to NBC News, at 10 AM local time, a 5.7 magnitude earthquake shook just south of the Big Island of Hawaii. Initially, the USGS had reported it as a 6.3 magnitude quake but eventually downgraded it to 5.7. The earthquake was centered SE of Mauna Loa, the Earth’s largest active volcano, and was at a depth of 6 miles. No tsunami was expected per the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

UPDATE–REVISED EARTHQUAKE PARAMETERS: The earthquake at 10:07am HST today (2/9) was determined to be on the SE flank of Mauna Loa, and the magnitude downgraded to 5.7. There is still NO tsunami threat expected. pic.twitter.com/W1De60sMzu

— Hawaii EMA (@Hawaii_EMA) February 9, 2024

People in Honolulu on the island Oahu, could feel shaking. Honolulu is about 200 miles north of the epicenter. The shaking was pretty severe, but no damage was reported. Derek Nelson, the manager of the Kona Canoe Club restaurant in Kona, said, “I mean, it shook us bad to where it wobbled some knees a little bit. It shook all the windows in the village.”

While visiting these top tourist destinations is lots of fun, it’s important to remember that it is common for earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, and even tsunamis to occur there. Be sure to understand the proper procedures if one of these happens while you’re visiting. Emergency management personnel are always doing their jobs to keep you and everyone else safe in the case of an emergency, so you can continue to have a relaxing vacation!

Remember, keep following AllEars for all your vacation planning news!

The ULTIMATE Disney World Summer Survival Guide

Have you experienced an earthquake on a vacation? Let us know in the comments!