On 24 June 2026, doublet large strike-slip earthquakes affected northwestern and central Venezuela. The epicenter of the first earthquake was in Veroes Municipality, west of San Felipe, the capital city of Yaracuy. This earthquake, which measured 7.2, occurred at 18:04 VET and was classified as a foreshock. It was followed by a Mw 7.5 mainshock 30 seconds later centered off the coast of La Guaira, west of Catia La Mar. The two earthquakes caused widespread damage across the country, particularly in the capital Caracas and especially the state of La Guaira, where 80% of buildings collapsed. As of August 2026, at least 6,500 fatalities were officially confirmed, about 226,700 were injured or hospitalized, and tens of thousands still remain missing. Analysis by independent sources suggest a death toll far exceeding the official figure.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) system predicted the death toll could be significantly higher than the initial reports, potentially exceeding 10,000. The mainshock was the strongest in Venezuela since the 1900 San Narciso earthquake.
Tectonic setting
Northern Venezuela lies within a broad, transpressional boundary zone between the Caribbean plate and the South American plate rather than along a single fault. Its principal active structure is the Boconó–San Sebastián–El Pilar fault system, with slip transferred farther east through the Los Bajos Fault and onto the Warm Springs Fault near Trinidad. It is a compressional and right-lateral strike-slip system that extends for more than 1,300 km (810 mi) from the Venezuelan Andes to Trinidad and accommodates much of the dextral motion between the Caribbean and South American plates at about 10 mm (0.39 in) per year.
The 24 June 2026 doublet earthquake occurred within this plate-boundary zone near the San Sebastián fault system. The USGS located the Mw 7.2 foreshock near Yumare and the Mw 7.5 mainshock in the Caribbean Sea, northwest of Caracas. The USGS described the mainshock as shallow strike-slip faulting near the complex plate boundary along the San Sebastián fault system. This is consistent with the regional tectonic setting of east–west-trending right-lateral faults in northern Venezuela. The Boconó and San Sebastián faults were previously identified as potential sources of future large earthquakes. The Boconó Fault, which last ruptured in 1812, has accumulated a slip deficit that could be released as a magnitude 7.0–7.6 earthquake. Machel Higgins, a geophysicist at Florida International University, said the San Sebastián Fault was capable of producing a magnitude 7.1 earthquake.
The San Sebastián Fault is mostly offshore along north-central Venezuela, north of the Venezuelan Coastal Range. A short onshore segment near Simón Bolívar International Airport is also known as the Bruscas Fault. Farther east, the San Sebastián and El Pilar faults are separated by the Cariaco pull-apart basin. The offshore San Sebastián and El Pilar faults comprise 400 km (250 mi) of the total length of the plate boundary from longitudes −68° to −64°.
The same plate-boundary system has been associated with several large historical earthquakes in northern Venezuela, including events in 1641, 1766, 1812, 1900, and 1967. A 2015 marine seismic study attributed the Mw 7.6 1900 San Narciso earthquake to a rupture on the eastern San Sebastián Fault. The 1900 rupture source may have been east of Maiquetía and along the northern margin of the Cariaco Basin, between the ruptures of the 1812 Caracas and 1853 Cumaná earthquakes.
Earthquakes
The first shock was an Mw 7.2 earthquake east-northeast of Yumare at 22:04 UTC and a depth of 10 km (6.2 mi). It was caused by right-lateral strike-slip faulting on an east–west trending fault. The GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) catalogued the foreshock at Mw 7.3 and a depth of 12 km (7.5 mi).
Thirty seconds later, a Mww 7.5 shock struck about 100 km (62 mi) east of the first event at a depth of 10 km (6.2 mi). The epicenter of the first earthquake is in the Veroes municipality in the state of Yaracuy. The second quake was centered off the coast of La Guaira state near Catia La Mar. This earthquake was caused by either right-lateral strike-slip faulting on an east–west trending fault or left-lateral strike-slip faulting on a north–south striking fault. The USGS said that it likely ruptured along the San Sebastián Fault, with slip confined to a 175-by-20-kilometre (109-by-12-mile) area. The GFZ reported this earthquake as Mw 7.4 and placed the epicenter northwest of Caracas. The GFZ's focal mechanism indicated right-lateral strike-slip faulting on an east–west trending fault. This mainshock is the largest in Venezuela since 1900, when a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck northeast of Caracas.
The GEOSCOPE Observatory only reported one Mw 7.8 earthquake with an epicenter area close to that of the USGS event epicenters, lasting for about two minutes. The focal mechanism solution provided by the agency indicated right-lateral strike-slip faulting that initiated at a depth of 12 km (7.5 mi).
Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) published an earthquake finite fault model describing slip along the fault based on analysing surface displacement data from ESA's Sentinel-1 Earth-observation satellite. According to the model, the rupture involved an east–west trending, north-dipping fault. Because ground deformation data collected for both earthquakes were indistinguishable, the INGV's model combined them into a single event measuring Mw 7.6 containing two episodes of high energy release. Slip occurred along a 210 by 30 km (130 by 19 mi) section of the fault extending from near Morón to northeast of Caracas. The rupture initiated near Morón, which corresponded with the first earthquake; this event produced up to 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) of slip at a depth of 20 km (12 mi). The INGV estimated that rupture propagated towards Caracas at a velocity of 3–3.5 km (1.9–2.2 mi) per second. A second episode of energy release occurred 30 to 40 seconds later, corresponding to the second earthquake and representing the greatest energy release phase. The second event was associated with a maximum slip of 3.6 m (12 ft) offshore, north of Catia La Mar, at a depth of 11.1 km (6.9 mi).
The USGS modelled two fault segments with a combined dimension of about 230 by 40 km (143 by 25 mi) and combined magnitude of 7.54, representing both events. These segments dipped 78 degrees south. Most of the rupture occurred west of the hypocenter of the first event, which ruptured a ~40 km (25 mi) east–northeast onshore portion of the fault. An east–west trending, offshore, 180 km (110 mi) fault rupture represented the second earthquake. Slip on the longer east–west segment was greater; more than 1 m (3 ft 3 in) of slip occurred for most of its length, peaking at 1.8232 m (5 ft 11.78 in) in a region west of the fault. Around the hypocenter, the slip also peaked at 1.5811 m (5 ft 2.25 in). The zone of greatest slip (>1 m (3 ft 3 in)) occurred at depth from west of Veroes Municipality to Simón Bolívar International Airport, a distance of about 200 km (120 mi). The earthquake sequence lasted about 70 seconds.
Seismologists at Peking University modelled one Mw 7.61 earthquake at a depth of 10 km (6.2 mi) rupturing in an asymmetric bilateral way across a 210 by 40 km (130 by 25 mi) area. The earthquake propagated mainly eastwards with slip concentrating at shallow depths along the fault. Most of the slip occurred at 60–130 km (37–81 mi) east of the epicenter, peaking at 4.49 m (14.7 ft) some 70 km (43 mi) away; the model also indicated a significant vertical slip component in addition to the strike-slip motion. The greatest energy release occurred some 20–80 seconds after the rupture initiated, but continued for 90 seconds.
Seismic networks in Alaska, Europe, and the western United States which recorded ground motion indicated evidence of supershear rupture velocities of 4 to 5 km (2.5 to 3.1 mi) per second, far exceeding the local shear wave velocity of 3.2 to 3.8 km (2.0 to 2.4 mi) per second in the area. Supershear rupture is inferred to have initiated 150 km (93 mi) from the initial epicenter, or within the first 30 to 35 second of the rupture.
Six aftershocks were felt in Caracas within two hours of the mainshock. According to Fundación Venezolana de Investigaciones Sismológicas, 1,115 aftershocks were recorded from the time of the earthquakes to 8 July. These aftershocks mainly occurred in Yaracuy, Carabobo, Aragua, Miranda and La Guaira. The largest aftershock occurred at 22:54 UTC on 24 June and measured mb 5.0.
A tsunami advisory was issued for the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands following the earthquakes, but was later rescinded. A 4 cm (1.6 in) high tsunami struck Isla de Mona and Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, while a 2 cm (0.79 in) high surge was detected at Fort-de-France, Martinique.
Ground motion
No strong-motion instruments recorded the mainshock within 10 km (6.2 mi) of the rupture; the nearest records were obtained in Caracas, about 12 km (7.5 mi) from its surface projection. An international consortium of researchers from the University of Chile, Stanford University, City St George's, University of London and the University of Concepción reconstructed the shaking in Caraballeda from two closed-circuit television cameras, in a study published in The Seismic Record. They tracked the frictional sliding of a roadside traffic post and checked the result against the independently tracked swaying of a nearby light pole. It estimated a short, intense near-fault velocity pulse oriented roughly north–south, approximately perpendicular to the fault, with a peak ground velocity of about 202 cm/s (80 in/s) in its strongest horizontal direction. Within the NGA-West2 global strong-motion database, only two records from the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake exceed this value. The footage shows eight buildings beginning to collapse almost simultaneously at the end of the pulse.
Shaking was also felt in Bogotá, northeastern Colombia, and northern Brazil, including in Manaus, Belém and Macapá, triggering evacuations. Tremors were also felt in the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao), in parts of the Dominican Republic, including Santo Domingo, and in Puerto Rico. In Trinidad and Tobago, coastal uplift of up to 20 ft (6.1 m) was observed in Galfa Point, along the southwestern peninsula of Trinidad.
Casualties
According to official government figures released on 24 August, at least 6,509 people died and 226,696 were injured or hospitalized. Tens of thousands were displaced; more than 16,300 people who lost their homes, and another 28,300 whose homes were uninhabitable.
There were claims that the true death toll is likely higher than the official figure. On 4 August, José Alejandro Terán, the governor of La Guaira, reported that 7,265 people died and 1,579 others were missing, though the national government did not reflect this. No official death toll update have been released by the government since late August, even though bodies continue to be recovered in La Guaira as recent as end-September.
Journalists from The New York Times suggest the official death toll was a severe undercount. The agency said that about 5,200 people were living in 16 public housing apartments in Caraballeda when they collapsed. Although not all these residents were inside the buildings when they collapsed, many inside were unable to escape in time before collapse. Data from Copernicus, a satellite, indicate more than 700 buildings were destroyed, far higher than the figure provided by the Venezuelan government which was 190. A separate assessment by The New York Times showed that 656 buildings and 370 homes were completely or partially destroyed.