صفيحة أمريكا الشمالية
The event occurred near the Cuba Fracture Zone and was well away from the edge of the North American Plate. Randy Cox, an associate professor of earth science at the University of Memphis in Tennessee stated that the source of strain was the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where seafloor spreading was causing compression of the North American Plate. A magnitude 5.2 event in February 2006 may have been associated with the same fault zone.