Earthquake is a sudden motion or trembling in the earth caused by the abrupt release of slowly accumulated strain (by faulting or by volcanic activity).
Near the Coast of Venezuela 1967 July 29 UTC Magnitude 6.5 This earthquake centered near the coast about 30 miles west of Caracas. When the earth stopped shaking, about 240 inhabitants were dead and hundreds injured and buried in the rubble where homes and offices once stood. Over $100 million property damage was incurred in the Caracas area and about 80,000 persons were left homeless. Damage was extensive in the Altamira and Los Palos Grandes sections of Caracas where four major apartment buildings, 10 to 12 stories high, collapsed. Many additional structures were severely damaged and several will have to be razed and reconstructed. Huge sections of walls fell from buildings, flattening cars below and leaving large portions of structures exposed. Rescue workers used cranes and bulldozers to search through the rubble for survivors or victims of the earthquake. A week after the shock, rescue operations continued for persons believed trapped beneath the floors of the coast resort hotel, Mansion Charaima. Maracay, about 50 miles west of Caracas, reported five deaths and 100 injuries. Several additional towns reported structural damage.
A strong earthquake, measuring 7 on the Richter scale, struck Venezuela on 9 July1997, some 400 km east of Caracas, killing 71 persons and injuring 683. National response was very well organized. 345 persons were rescued. The UNDAC team for the Latin American region was alerted on 10 July. While the alert was eventually stood-down as no appeal for international assistance was issued, local members of the UNDAC team assisted the UNDP/DHA Resident Coordinator and the Government.
Based on global reports Venezuela doesn’t have large and deadly earthquakes by year 1990-2007.
Earthquakes have always been considered as one of the most destructive natural calamities in human history that in a short time period claim lots of lives and inherit a lot of material and financial damages to the society. Venezuela is a seismic country and as a result, throughout centuries many humans and civilizations had been the subject of quake damage and destruction or old big cities had be destroyed and reconstructed several times. In recent decades, two earthquakes have caused much destruction to cities and killed many people.
Venezuela Earthquakes
- 1812/03/26 , Caracas , Mw= 7.7 Fatalities 26,000
- 1967/07/29 , Caracas , Mw=6.5 Fatalities 240
- 1997/07/09 , Cariaco, Mw= 6.9 Fatalities 71