Event: Caracas

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.Twin earthquakes like those that ripped through the region are unusual but not unheard of. Scientists are already gathering data needed for a more detailed picture.Emergency workers at the site of a collapsed building in Caracas on Thursday.Credit...Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/ReutersJune 25, 2026Northern Venezuela is no stranger to large, damaging earthquakes. But the pair that tore through the region on Wednesday ranks as a rare catastrophe — a one-two punch representing one of the most powerful tectonic events to strike there in the past century.At 6:04 p.m. local time, a magnitude 7.2 temblor struck to the west of the capital city of Caracas; this was followed just 39 seconds later by a magnitude 7.5 rupture. So-called doublets are uncommon, but not vanishingly so. In September 2025, just southwest of Wednesday’s doublet, a pair of quakes (magnitudes 6.2 and 6.3) caused widespread damage to buildings and injured more than 110 people.The extent of the devastation is not yet clear, and scientists may yet revise their estimates of the quakes’ strength. Over the coming weeks, researchers will gather reams of geologic data and build up a detailed picture of the twin temblors.But they already have an idea as to why these quakes took place in such a remarkably short time and why they were so damaging. Here’s what they know so far about these catastrophic earthquakes, and what to expect in the days to come.Why was one strong quake immediately followed by another?During a sequence of earthquakes, the most powerful among them — in this case, the magnitude 7.5 event — is considered to be the main shock, which would make the magnitude 7.2 event the “foreshock.”These two…