{"id":758867,"date":"2026-06-25T07:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T07:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/758867\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T07:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T07:20:12","slug":"major-earthquakes-strike-us-venezuela-and-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/758867\/","title":{"rendered":"Major earthquakes strike US, Venezuela and Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three major earthquakes<\/a> rattled a trio of nations globally on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The first quake hit the north coast of California with a 5.6 magnitude tremor, just after 8am on Wednesday local time.<\/p>\n

It was followed by the largest of the three quakes, a 7.5 magnitude tremor which hit the north coast of Venezuela just after 6pm on Wednesday local time.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

About half an hour later, Japan was hit with a 6.9 magnitude quake, about 7.30am on Thursday local time.<\/p>\n

Dozens killed in Venezuela earthquake<\/p>\n

In Venezuela, buildings collapsed in the capital of Caracas, nearly 170km from the epicentre of the 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Moron, on the Caribbean coast.<\/p>\n

The first quake which struck at a depth of 21km, was followed by a 7.5 magnitude quake that hit at a depth of 10km less than two minutes later, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello described the situation as \u201calarming\u201d and urged people to remain outside in case aftershocks further damaged structures.<\/p>\n

Hazardous tsunami waves are possible for coasts within 300km of the earthquake epicentre, the US Tsunami Warning Centre said.<\/p>\n

Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands both fall within that radius.<\/p>\n

Some of the Venezuela\u2019s largest refineries are also located in Montalb\u00e1n, an just 28km northwest of the epicentre.<\/p>\n

Dozens of people of people are dead following the quake. Read further details here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Play Video<\/p>\n

7.5 and 7.2 magnitude earthquakes rock Venezuela<\/p>\n

7.5 and 7.2 magnitude earthquakes rock VenezuelaCommuters rattled in Tokyo<\/p>\n

Tsunami warnings were cancelled in Japan where the 6.9 magnitude tremor hit off the coast of Iwate in the nation\u2019s north.<\/p>\n

The quake struck at a depth of 51km, the USGS said.<\/p>\n

Tremors were felt seven hours south in Tokyo, where mild shaking rattled commuters during the Thursday morning peak hour rush.<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s longest bullet train line, the Tohoku Shinkansen, also halted operations, according to Japan Safe Travel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There have been no immediate reports of injuries or damages.<\/p>\n

Japan sits on the boundary of several tectonic plates, known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, and is one of the world\u2019s most earthquake-prone areas.<\/p>\n

California quake the strongest since 1940<\/p>\n

The 5.6 magnitude earthquake that hit a rural area in northern California is the strongest tremor that the coastal agricultural region has recorded since 1940.<\/p>\n

Three other quakes under magnitude 2.7 struck near the epicenter within an hour of the major quake.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn owner of the Redwood Valley Market looks at the mess made during a earthquake in Redwood Valley, California. Credit: AP via NBC<\/p>\n

Supermarket goods were shaken loose from shelves and smashed in the aisles of Redwood Valley Market.<\/p>\n

Brie Leon, an employee of the Club Calpella Restaurant five-minutes south, had just flicked on the open sign when she felt the quake.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt almost felt like something hit the building,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

– With CNN, NBC and AP<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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2 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three major earthquakes rattled a trio of nations globally on Thursday. The first quake hit the north coast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":758868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,8984,43179,75,941,44,128,255658,22474,1192,1346],"class_list":["post-758867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-disaster-and-emergency","tag-earthquakes","tag-environment","tag-japan","tag-news","tag-science","tag-united-states-usa","tag-venezuela","tag-weather","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}