Twin earthquakes in Venezuela leave at least 164 dead

Rescuers in Venezuela searched collapsed buildings on Thursday after twin earthquakes killed at least 164 people, with nearly 1,000 injured and thousands still missing. The worst of the damage was concentrated in La Guaira state and around Caracas, where the ground shook hard enough to shut Simón Bolívar International Airport and keep classes canceled for several days.

The two quakes struck on June 24 within about 39 seconds of each other, first a magnitude 7.2 shock and then a magnitude 7.5 jolt. Both were shallow, with U.S. Geological Survey estimates putting their depths at about 22 kilometers and 10 kilometers, and their epicenters near Morón on the Caribbean coast, roughly 160 to 168 kilometers west of Caracas. The shaking traveled far beyond the capital, reaching Brazil’s Amazon about 1,700 kilometers away.

Acting President Delcy Rodríguez said several states were damaged and urged residents to stay calm while medical workers reported to hospitals. Power and cellphone outages compounded the disruption, and rescue teams were concentrated in La Guaira as crews worked through unstable rubble. The toll rose quickly from at least 32 dead and 700 injured on June 24, as crews worked through damaged neighborhoods and collapsed structures.

Seismologists have not yet classified the first quake in the sequence. Twin quakes like this are unusual, though not unheard of. The U.S. Geological Survey's hazard models put aftershocks at nearly 100 percent, and they gave nearly a 30 percent chance of at least one aftershock exceeding magnitude 6, a level that could further damage weakened buildings, trigger landslides, and cause liquefaction in saturated ground.

Venezuela sits near the boundary between the Caribbean and South American tectonic plates, and the Boconó fault is one of the country’s most active and dangerous. Northern Venezuela has a long record of destructive earthquakes, including major events in 1989, 2009 and 2018, and a September 2025 doublet in the west that killed at least one person, injured more than 110 and left widespread structural damage.