What caused the earthquakes in Venezuela?

The earthquakes that occurred Wednesday evening along the northern coast of Venezuela were devastating. Thousands of people have been killed along with thousands of people missing in the rubble.

The destruction was compounded by the fact that there were two major earthquakes back-to-back within seconds outside of Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. The time between the two earthquakes was so minimal that the Venezuelan people thought that it was one huge major tremor.

The first earthquake recorded was a 7.2 magnitude. What makes this tragedy even more impactful was that the next quake was a whopping 7.5 magnitude. Things were already shaken at ground level once the second earthquake brought down buildings already affected seconds earlier. These two earthquakes were the largest tremors in Venezuela since a 7.7 magnitude earthquake occurred in 1900.

What caused these earthquakes to happen at such a high level after 126 years? The answer is that a combination of factors led to this devastation.

Venezuela has a fault in the southern part of the country that is similar to the San Andreas fault that is located in California. Seismologists estimate that these type of faults can cause a rupture that can be felt miles away throughout the region. Even though the fault was way south of Caracas, Caracas was still able to feel most of the impact due the tectonic plates striking one another a far distance away from the capital.

The term used by seismic experts to explaining this phenomenon is known as doublet earthquakes or twin quakes. What made these doublet quakes so rare in Venezuela is that two quakes that happen within a minute of each other is that the quakes will happen on different fault lines simultaneously. The first tremor will occur on one fault line, while the second one will take place on another fault line nearby.

However, this doublet earthquake on Wednesday night occurred on the same fault line in southern Venezuela. Seismologists have deduced that extenuating circumstances had to cause for these twin quakes to rumble on the same fault line within seconds of each other.

Earlier in January of this year, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was captured by US forces. After he was captured, the plan for the US was to begin drilling oil once again throughout the country of Venezuela due to the country having the largest oil reserves throughout the entire world.

After the US began drilling again throughout Venezuela, America has exported almost $8 billion of Venezuelan oil over the past five months. Since the Strait of Hormuz has been blocked off over the past four months, oil tankers from the Middle East have not been able to send their oil to the rest of the countries throughout the world.

This supply chain issue led to most of the countries in the world buying the Venezuelan oil that was stolen by the US.

During the process of drilling for oil, plenty of holes are left in the ground that go hundreds of feet into the ground. These holes then fill up with water. That water then goes underground and lubricates the fault lines which cause earthquakes in the future. This outside circumstance of drilling oil caused for the doublet earthquakes to be appear from the same fault line.

Since 2010, all earthquakes in western Canada with a magnitude of 3.0 or greater happened due to oil and gas operations within the area.

The damage done in Venezuela was also exacerbated by builders in Caracas erecting large buildings on sand along the coast of the Caribbean Sea. Also, buildings were not built using construction designs that absorb the energy from tremors. New building were built quickly over the first half of this year due to the oil boom.