Two major, back-to-back earthquakes struck northern Venezuela on Wednesday, reducing buildings to rubble in the nearby capital of Caracas.
An initial earthquake at about 6 p.m. Eastern time, a 7.2-magnitude foreshock, was followed less than a minute later by a 7.5-magnitude earthquake in the same area, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The epicenters, which USGS estimated to be about 3 miles apart, were near the town of Morón on Venezuela's Caribbean coast, some 100 miles west of Caracas.
"When the earthquakes are this close together" in time, said Paul Earle, a seismologist at USGS, "it can be difficult to unravel the exact magnitudes and the exact locations, especially for the second event," due to the way the signals on seismograms overlap in these cases.
Photos and video posted to social media showed leveled buildings, people running for safety, and falling debris from structural damage at Simón Bolívar International Airport in Caracas. The airport has since closed.
The total number of deaths and injuries is not yet clear. On Wednesday evening, USGS modeling of the 7.5-magnitude earthquake estimated deaths could be in the thousands to tens of thousands, with economic losses reaching billions to tens of billions of dollars, Earle said.
"This doesn't happen very often," Earle said. "When they're right together it's hard to understand what would happen."
The strongest of the "doublet," as the USGS described the twin quakes, is the largest earthquake to strike Venezuela since 1900, when a 7.7-magnitude quake hit the country, according to USGS.
About a half-hour after the Venezuela quakes, a 6.9-magnitude earthquake hit the east coast of Japan. Earlier Wednesday, a 5.6-magnitude quake struck Northern California. There was no major damage reported in either quake.
In Venezuela, significant aftershocks are likely to follow in the coming days.
According to USGS forecasting, there's a 40% chance that, in the next week, a 6-magnitude or larger earthquake will strike in the same region, Earle said, and an "almost certainty" of an earthquake measuring at least a magnitude 5.
Tsunami warnings previously issued for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands were recalled, and no such advisory was in effect as of Wednesday night.
On Wednesday evening, the acting president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, declared a state of emergency, and said several Venezuelan states had sustained damage. She also called for unity, and urged "our population to remain calm."
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