Why Venezuela’s earthquakes were so devastating: Geology, vulnerability, and years of structural neglect

Global Voices reports that Venezuela's recent earthquakes — the country's deadliest since nineteen hundred — cannot be explained by magnitude alone. Two quakes struck in close succession, a rare seismic doublet of magnitude seven point two and seven point five just thirty-nine seconds apart, with the coastal region around La Guaira and Caracas at the epicenter of the nation's seismic risk. The current toll stands at four thousand three hundred thirty-six dead, more than sixteen thousand wounded, and some twenty thousand still missing. According to the report, the destruction was amplified by soft sedimentary soils that intensified the shaking, and by years of structural neglect — deferred building maintenance, weakened institutions, and a prolonged economic crisis that had eroded the country's ability to prepare for and respond to a disaster of this scale.

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