Venezuela hit by rare magnitude‑7 doublet earthquakes, killing at least 188
On June 24, northern Venezuela experienced a seismic doublet: two earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 and 7.3 occurred within 39 seconds of each other, killing at least 188 people and toppling buildings across several states. Scientists say the back‑to‑back events likely resulted from stress transfer along the fault, a phenomenon rare enough that only about 5% of large quakes occur as such close pairs. The doublet has prompted comparisons with historic sequences in California and renewed discussion of how to model cascading fault ruptures. While some researchers argue the two shocks should be treated as a single complex event for hazard assessments, others stress the need to differentiate them to improve early‑warning systems and building‑code revisions in seismically vulnerable regions.
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