{"id":658194,"date":"2026-06-25T21:35:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T21:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/658194\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T21:35:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T21:35:11","slug":"two-shallow-quakes-in-39-seconds-why-venezuelas-earthquakes-have-been-so-destructive-international","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/658194\/","title":{"rendered":"Two shallow quakes in 39 seconds: Why Venezuela\u2019s earthquakes have been so destructive | International"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two powerful earthquakes less than 40 seconds apart struck Venezuela, causing widespread destruction and killing more than 160 people on Wednesday. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that the final death toll could reach into the tens of thousands. The agency also warns that aftershocks are almost certain, with nearly a 30% probability that they could exceed magnitude 6 on the Richter scale<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Its automated hazard assessment system has flagged potential landslides and liquefaction \u2014 a phenomenon that can cause buildings to sink into the ground, as has occurred in earthquakes in Japan. The USGS estimates a 42% probability that the death toll could range between 10,000 and 100,000, with economic losses of between $10 billion and $100 billion.<\/p>\n

Venezuela is a high seismic-risk zone. It lies near the boundary between the Caribbean and South American tectonic plates, which move in nearly opposite directions, building up seismic tension. The two earthquakes occurred along the Bocon\u00f3 fault, one of the most active and dangerous in the country. At present, around 80% of the population lives in areas of high seismic hazard, a factor that increases overall risk \u2014 intensifying as population density rises and infrastructure investment expands \u2014 according to the Venezuelan Foundation for Seismological Research.<\/p>\n

The first foreshock measured magnitude 7.2 and struck at a depth of 12.4 miles. Just 39 seconds later, a second, larger quake of magnitude 7.5 hit at a depth of 6.2 miles. Both tremors occurred southeast of Yumare, in northwestern Venezuela.<\/p>\n

Northern Venezuela has a history of large, destructive earthquakes<\/a>. However, within a 155-mile radius of this Wednesday\u2019s twin quake \u2014 recorded at 6 p.m. local time \u2014 only seven earthquakes of magnitude 6 or higher had been recorded over the past century.<\/p>\n

The region recently experienced another doublet in September 2025, consisting of a magnitude 6.2 earthquake followed by a 6.3 event to the west-southwest of the most recent tremors. That 2025 sequence caused at least one fatality, more than 110 injuries, and extensive structural damage in the states of Zulia and Lara.<\/p>\n

In September 2009, a magnitude 6.4 earthquake east-northeast of Mor\u00f3n injured 18 people and damaged buildings, and a magnitude 6 event in 1989 caused light damage in the Valencia area. Further west, a magnitude 6.1 quake shook the region in April 1975.<\/p>\n

The most devastating modern earthquake in the vicinity was the July 1967 Caracas quake (magnitude 6.6), with an epicentre about 81 miles to the east. It caused roughly 240 deaths, hundreds of injuries, and led to the collapse of multiple high-rise residential buildings and widespread destruction. In a broader Venezuelan context, there have been five earthquakes of magnitude 7 or greater in the country\u2019s north or near the coast since 1900.<\/p>\n

In 1812, during Venezuela\u2019s fight for independence from Spain, another devastating earthquake originating on the Bocon\u00f3 fault struck the country, causing some 30,000 deaths, according to the United States Geological Survey.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only was the energy high, but the quakes were also very shallow, especially the second, which is devastating,\u201d says Miguel \u00c1ngel Rodr\u00edguez Pascua, director of the Geological Hazards Department at the Geological and Mining Institute (IGME-CSIC). \u201cVenezuela\u2019s tectonic situation is dominated by the boundary between the Caribbean plate and the South American plate, an active contact that creates a roughly 100-kilometre-wide [62-mile] seismic belt where most of the country\u2019s earthquakes are concentrated.\u201d <\/p>\n

IGME geologist Ra\u00fal P\u00e9rez notes: \u201cThis type of earthquake is not common in this configuration, and worse, they are tremendously damaging.\u201d <\/p>\n

The two quakes were so close together that people felt them as a single long earthquake. <\/p>\n

\u201cNormally, when one quake is followed by a second, the epicentres are separated by hundreds of kilometres, which spreads out the damage,\u201d he says. \u201cIn this case, the area of greatest intensity overlaps. And on top of that, they occurred right at the confluence of two faults, the San Sebasti\u00e1n and Bocon\u00f3 faults, which have high tectonic slip rates and a huge capacity to store energy. Bear in mind that this confluence had not been active since 1900, so it had been building up tectonic energy for 100 years that was released in these two quakes that happened, let\u2019s say, one on top of the other.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bocon\u00f3 fault runs for about 310 miles through the Andes mountain range<\/a>. Numerous faults converge with or diverge from its main axis. It extends across western Venezuela in a southwest direction between the town of San Crist\u00f3bal, near the Colombian border, and Mor\u00f3n on the Caribbean coast of Golfo Triste.<\/p>\n

Pablo Silva, chair of Geological Hazards at the University of Salamanca, explains that the Bocon\u00f3 fault passes through the middle of Caracas, a city of about three million people with many high-rise buildings. \u201cAutomatic casualty estimates are made based on population and using the capital\u2019s building types as a baseline, but those building types are actually very different in the rural areas also hit by the quake, which could significantly raise the final casualty count,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

The seismologist explains that although a doublet like this Wednesday\u2019s was \u201cto be expected,\u201d \u201cyou are never prepared for something like this.\u201d On the possibility of preventing earthquake impacts, he says there is only one sure method: enact and enforce seismic-resistant building standards. He points to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, magnitude 7.2, which caused about 300,000 deaths because of the poor state of buildings. By contrast, he says, a similar quake years later in San Francisco, where structures are earthquake-resistant, caused negligible fatalities.<\/p>\n

Sign up for our weekly newsletter<\/a> to get more English-language news coverage from EL PA\u00cdS USA Edition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two powerful earthquakes less than 40 seconds apart struck Venezuela, causing widespread destruction and killing more than 160…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[189387,1397,90,56,54,55,586],"class_list":["post-658194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-caracas","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-venezuela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}