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Two powerful earthquakes struck the Venezuelan Caribbean on Wednesday, June 24, 2026, just 39 seconds apart, in a seismic sequence whose main event was a magnitude 7.5 earthquake, according to the U.S. government’s official tsunami warning system.
Authorities said the first tremor, initially reported as magnitude 7.2, was later reclassified as a foreshock to the magnitude 7.5 earthquake after seismic records were analyzed.
The U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center explained that the two tremors constituted an “earthquake doublet,” a phenomenon in which two major earthquakes occur within seconds of each other in the same area. As a result, official information was updated to identify the magnitude 7.5 quake as the main event.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimated that the earthquake doublet could potentially result in between 10,000 and 100,000 fatalities, according to the preliminary assessment generated by its PAGER system, which also forecasts significant economic losses.
The USGS issued an orange alert for the earthquake’s potential human and economic impact, a category indicating a significant risk of casualties and material damage. However, the agency emphasized that this is a model-based estimate rather than an official casualty count.
According to the USGS, the projection is based on the intensity of ground shaking, the population exposed, and the vulnerability of buildings in the affected area. The system assigns probabilities to different casualty ranges, with the 10,000 to 100,000 deaths scenario currently considered the most likely within the model.
Venezuela Declares State of Emergency
Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, declared a state of emergency following the two earthquakes measuring magnitudes 7.5 and 7.2 that struck central Venezuela, causing material damage that has yet to be fully assessed. As of now, authorities have not reported an official number of injuries or fatalities.
“At this moment, we are declaring a state of emergency, as provided for in our Constitution,” Rodríguez said in a televised address broadcast on the state-run network Venezolana de Televisión (VTV). She was accompanied by National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez and Interior and Justice Minister Diosdado Cabello.
Rodríguez also announced that the country’s entire public and private healthcare network had been activated, particularly in the hardest-hit areas, to treat those injured, although she did not provide a figure for the number of casualties.
The earthquake’s epicenter was located about 300 kilometers (186 miles) east of Caracas, in the municipality of Montalbán, Carabobo state, in central Venezuela.
According to the USGS, the earthquake occurred at a depth of 13.2 kilometers (8.2 miles), classifying it as a shallow earthquake.
The last earthquake of similar magnitude to strike Venezuela occurred in 2018, when a magnitude 7.3 quake hit Sucre state, affecting at least ten countries across the region, including Brazil, Guyana, and several Caribbean islands.
