The earth has trembled in Venezuela with a force that has not been known for a century in an area accustomed to seismic movements. The two earthquakes that shook the north and center of the country on Wednesday afternoon (early morning on Thursday in Spain) give a very provisional toll of 164 dead and a thousand injured, but the images of enormous destruction raise fears that these figures are very short and the tragedy is much greater. The epicenter has been located in the center of the country, but its effects have been more devastating in the northern coastal regions and in the capital, Caracasabout 300 kilometers from the epicenter.
The first tremor took place at 6:05 p.m. local time (00:05 Thursday Spanish peninsular time) with the epicenter between the cities of yumare y Montalbanin the state of Carabobo, and has especially affected the entire area around the Aroa mountain rangein the northwest of the country. This first earthquake had an intensity of 7.2 and a depth of 21 kilometers.
39 seconds later, with the epicenter very close, but with a magnitude three tenths higher (7.5), the earth shook again with a power three times greater than the first time and a depth less than the first, 10 kilometers. The most affected area is the state of La Guairawhose capital of the same name is barely 30 kilometers from Caracas. It is the most tourist area in the country. The earthquake has been felt in important towns, such as Trujillo, Yaracuy, Carabobo, Aragua, Miranda and Caracas itself.
The phenomenon that has shaken Venezuela is known as a “seismic doublet” and occurs when the energy released by tectonic movement is so high that is released in several large episodes in a very short time frame. The country is located in a region where the tear failuresin which the friction of the rock blocks prevents the free movement of the plates, so that the energy is stored in the rocks and, when a sudden rupture occurs, it generates an earthquake.
The locality where the earthquake had the greatest intensity (magnitude 8 on the Richter scale) has been Puerto Cabellowhere 209,080 people live. But secondly it appears Catia La Mara coastal town of 661,897 inhabitants, where the earthquake had a magnitude of 7.9. In Caracaswhich has 2,245,744 inhabitants, the intensity of the earthquake was 6.8.
Although it has been the most destructive, the one in Venezuela is not the only high intensity earthquake that has taken place this Thursday on the planet. On the other side of the world, , which has not required the activation of a tsunami warning and has caused only five injuries. Significant tremors have also been reported in northern California (magnitude 5.6) and in Chile (magnitude 4.5), the latter with its epicenter in Atacama. None of them have caused personal injury.
This Thursday’s seismic doublet is the worst earthquake in Venezuela in a century. Three decades ago, the July 29, 1967the most serious earthquake in the country’s history occurred near Caracas, in which 245 people diedmore than 2,000 suffered injuries and the material damage was very extensive.
In this map and in the following chronology you can consult other earthquakes in Venezuela in the last hundred years and the balance of victims:
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