On Wednesday evening, two earthquakes struck in quick succession in northern Venezuela, around 170 kilometers (105 miles) west of the capital Caracas.
Almost a thousand people have already been reported injured, more than 180 have been killed, hundreds trapped and thousands more are missing. The full extent of the damage is still unclear, but the earthquakes – one magnitude 7.2 and the other 7.5, rank as some of Venezuela’s most destructive.Here’s a rundown of Venezuela’s recent seismic activity and how Wednesday’s quakes stack up historically to other major seismic incidents in the region and across the globe:The earthquakes intensities violently shook the region
Seismic activity typically clusters along the restless edges of Earth’s tectonic plates.Of the millions of earthquakes since 1900, just over 500 reached a magnitude of 7.5
There have been nearly 60 earthquakes in the Venezuelan region with a strength of 6.0 magnitude or more since 1900.Half of the regions’s strongest quakes struck within the last eight years
Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, issues a state of emergency for the country and said the government was in the process of creating a $200 million reconstruction fund for damaged hospitals and homes, while international aid from across the globe was being sent to help.
