7.1 earthquake near Venezuela coast triggers tsunami warning

A strong magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck near Venezuela's coast Wednesday evening, shaking Caracas, forcing evacuations from swaying buildings and triggering tsunami advisories for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The U.S. Geological Survey placed the epicenter 28 km northwest of Montalbán, Venezuela, at a depth of 13.2 km, a shallow profile that can intensify shaking across a wide area.

The quake hit at 6:04 p.m. local time, about 168 km west of Caracas and roughly an hour west of Valencia. Residents in neighboring Colombia also felt tremors. In Caracas, the Associated Press reported that buildings swayed and some were evacuated as people moved into the streets and emergency officials began checking for damage.

By the time early reports came in, damage and injuries were being reported, but no official casualty tally had been confirmed. The combination of a strong offshore quake, a shallow depth and the country’s most densely populated corridor raised immediate concern about how quickly power, transport and emergency response systems could be strained if structural damage spread through the capital region.

The tsunami advisories added another layer of urgency. The National Weather Service’s U.S. Tsunami Warning System issued alerts for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, underscoring how a seismic event near northern Venezuela can ripple across the wider Caribbean even when the most visible destruction is centered hundreds of kilometers away.

The shaking also revived memories of the 1967 Caracas earthquake, a grim benchmark in Venezuelan seismic history. That disaster killed 277 people, injured 2,000 more and caused an estimated $100 million in damage in and near the city, a reminder of the risk posed by strong ground motion in a capital with older buildings and densely packed neighborhoods.