Powerful quakes strike Venezuela, damaging buildings and prompting tsunami alert

Two powerful earthquakes shook Venezuela’s Caribbean coast Wednesday evening, collapsing buildings in Caracas and sending authorities scrambling to assess damage. The U.S. Geological Survey said the first quake measured 7.1 and struck near Morón at a depth of 13 kilometers, followed about one minute later by a stronger magnitude 7.5 quake about 16 kilometers southwest of the town at a depth of 10 kilometers.

In Caracas, the shaking brought down structures in the Alta Mira and Palos Grandes areas, and Venezuelan authorities reported injuries and damage in the capital. The impact reached beyond the city center, where residents were left to piece together how much had been lost after the fast-moving sequence of shallow quakes.

A tsunami advisory was briefly triggered after the tremors, adding to the urgency along the coast. Damage was also reported at an airport, and flights were suspended as airport authorities and emergency crews assessed conditions and worked to keep operations safe. The disruption underscored how quickly a coastal quake can strain emergency response capacity, especially when transportation links are hit at the same time as urban buildings.

Venezuela sits near the boundary where the Caribbean and South American tectonic plates interact, a setting that makes the country vulnerable to strong seismic activity. About 80 percent of the population lives in active seismic zones, which helps explain why earthquakes centered outside the capital can still have widespread consequences for homes, transit, and public safety.

The latest destruction also revived memories of earlier disasters in northern Venezuela. A magnitude 7.2 quake off the country’s northern coast in 2018 killed more than 400 people, a reminder of how deadly major seismic events can be in a region where densely populated areas, older buildings, and emergency systems face repeated stress.