The deadly one-two punch that toppled buildings in Venezuela's capital and beyond was a doublet earthquake, a pair of similar-sized quakes close in location and time.

A 7.2-magnitude earthquake and a 7.5-magnitude were less than a minute apart, said the U.S. Geological Survey. The second earthquake was the largest to hit the country since 1900.

Both quakes measured over 7.0 magnitude, with tremors being felt as far as more than a thousand miles away in Brazil’s Amazon region.