Venezuela’s deadly earthquakes happened on a fault similar to the San Andreas, and the risks aren’t over yet – a geophysicist explains

Venezuela was struck by deadly earthquakes this week along a fault that moves much like California's San Andreas. According to Sylvain Barbot, an Earth Sciences professor at USC, both faults run along plate boundaries where tectonic plates grind past each other in similar ways. The San Andreas has spawned massively destructive earthquakes throughout history, and Venezuela's fault shows a comparable pattern of dangerous ruptures. As Barbot explains, that history suggests the seismic danger in Venezuela isn't over yet.

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