An earthquake shook most of the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico Wednesday afternoon. In an interesting twist, the earthquake was also felt over 500 miles away in parts of Venezuela.

The quake struck just off the southeastern tip of Hispaniola at 5:15 p.m. EDT, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The underwater epicenter was 24 miles southeast of Boca De Yuma, Dominican Republic, or about 30 miles south of the resort town of Punta Cana. The area of the epicenter is about 80 miles west of Puerto Rico's western shoreline.

Twitter traffic, as well as reports to the USGS's "Did You Feel It?" page, indicated that the quake was felt across virtually all of the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

In an interesting twist, the quake was then felt about 7 minutes later in Caracas, Venezuela, some 560 miles from the epicenter. The depth of the quake, some 57 miles (91 kilometers) below ground, is likely the reason the seismic waves were felt so far away.