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.

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.

Two powerful earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, about 39 seconds apart, struck north-central Venezuela on Wednesday afternoon, collapsing buildings in the capital, Caracas, and…